Tempus
by Echofalls
Summary: Time flows in circles, until all possibilties have been explored, the universe will continue to cycle endlessly on the whim of the Daemon Sultan. Lovecraft- Lite.
1. Chapter 1

_Time flows in circles. Until all possibilities have been explored, all alternate universes seen to their end, it will continue to cycle endlessly on the empty whim of the Daemon Sultan... _

_Orion Resturant, _

_March 3rd,_

_12:32 Pm, _

_2012 AD: _

'Alex, please don't talk about dead Mi-go over lunch.' Kara Wilton demanded, picking at her salad with a fork.

'Yes, Alex, talk about something else, you're putting us off our lunch.' Ceaser Stone continued.

'Tch. Fine, I'll change subject. Two things, I think may be connected; the first was this... _horrible_ nightmare I had this morning, can't remember the details, but it chilled me to the bone. The second is that for these past few days, I've been feeling something... Watching me.' Alexander Gale shook his head. 'That's not what scares me though. It's the thing's specific interest in me that scares me so much.'

A short silence descended upon them for a while before Ceaser spoke up again.

'I always find that, once you get past the carapace, the Mi-go are really squishy beneath.'

'Oh, for goodness sake.' Kara replaced her cutlery. 'I've completely lost my appetite now, thanks Ceaser.'

He had arrived here, in this place and time to deal with a distortion that was breaking out, flooding the alleyways with filthy black water and from beyond the distortion, the sounds of a party that had escalated far out of control could be heard. It was simple enough to take care of. Margaret had informed him that setting up localised Null Field should disperse the widespread distortion.

'Ooo... Who are you?'

The moment the trio arrived at the source of the distortion, Alex changed from investigating to _flirting._ Flirting with the very, very tall man in midnight black military attire, long blonde hair tied back into a plait, trailing down his back. He was currently sticking flourescent blue tape onto the floor and walls around the area of a strange distortion.

'Please stay back, citizens, this is a dangerous situation.'

'"Citizen"? Who does he think he is?' Alex wondered, looking rejected.

'D.G.' Kara pulled him back so they could see the Greek "Delta" Symbol on his back, done in a dark green colour with the letters "D.G." inside.

'He's Delta Green?'

'W-when did they start getting uniforms? I-I want a uniform.' Alex jested playfully.

'What's your name, Agent?' Ceaser wondered.

'Mir-12.'

'No, your _name_, not your codename.'

Those sharp blue eyes looked over to him. 'Agent Theodore Dergon.'

'Ok... Theo, what's all this then? Something gone wrong with the local spacetime?'

'Apparently so. it appears to be that Carcosa is bleeding through into this reality.' He stopped to stick another bit of that bright blue tape over the wall. 'If I can just find and isloate the source, we should be able to dissipate it before it becomes too serious a threat.'

'You mean before any nasties come through and wipe us out prematurely?'

'Exactly.' Theodore nodded, a small smirk slipping onto his face.

'I... I thought I just saw something move...' Alex whispered, pointing into the deep water ahead of them. 'In that...'

'Really?' Ceaser wondered.

'No. It's just sludge.' Alex laughed.

'Aha!' the larger man joined in, hitting him lightly on the back. However, Alex's worn down trainers slipped on the slipper ground and he tumbled forwards, plunging straight into the murky waters.

'Alex!' Kara cried, rushing forwards as he surfaced, spluttering out mouthfuls of the inky black water.

'Well... That wasn't very graceful.' he laughed. 'Um... Could you help me out-?'

The blood seemed to drain from his face rapidly.

'Like... _Now_... I-I think I just felt something brush my leg...' Then he was dragged under once again.

The surface of the water bubbled severly, as though boiling. A bright flash of light lit up the water, the shriek of an alien creature echoed from below and Alex broke the surface, spluttering out the last part of his incantation. '..._A-advena... Adveni...'_

'Quickly! Pull him out!' Theo ordered, reaching in and ripping Alex from the water single handedly. Alex seemed unharmed, apart from the the tattered, bloody mess of his trousers and the obviously very deep, painful cuts on his legs.

'M-my hero.' Alex laughed lightly. 'But, I think I'll... need medical attention.'

Then he passed out.

Once Theo had closed the strange distortion with- frankly technology that went far beyond Kara's comprehension- he joined the two of them outside the hosptial.

'The doctors are looking after him now.' Kara scratched her neck, looking nervous. 'They asked us what did this...'

'We said it... was better that they didn't know.' Ceaser replied in a shrug.

Their attention drifted as a figure wandered towards them, dressed in a usual attire, but it was their eyes that offset their appearence. The way those eyes looked out on the world was nothing that a human could replicate.

'Is that a..?'  
'Yithian.' Kara finished Ceaser's question.

'Your presence is required, all three of you. One year from now, in the ruins of the Library City of Pnakatous. I suggest you do not try... his patience.' A flicker of fear crossed the otherwise emotionless voice and visage. Then the Yithian walked off, returning to it's recon mission.

'So, I'll have to stick that date in my diary.' Kara muttered. 'Great.'

'Well, we could. Or we could cut out the waiting and jump directly to 2013...' Theodore interrupted their train of thought.

'Wait... What?'

From his belt, Theodore took a circular device formed of an unknown metal and stuck it to a wall of the now restored- and still slightly damp alley.

Rolling up a sleeve, he accessed the small computer that was strapped to his wrist beneath, typing in co-ordinates and glancing up occasionally as the device activated, splitting into three segements and seperating about six feet before rotating in a clockwise direction, rapdily picking up speed around the strange orb of energy that building in the center.

'Pretty...' Kara gasped, watching it.

Suddenly the orb exploded outwards, connecting with the spinning segments and formed in a shimmering blue and silver... gateway.

'Go ahead. In you go.'

'Um...' Kara looked uncertain before taking a deep breath and stepping through.


	2. Chapter 2

_Pnaktous Ruins, _

_April 5th, _

_2:32 Pm, _

_2013 AD: _

_"A perpetual eclipse has settled over the ruins of the Yithian's library, and Flying Polyps from ancient times haunt the present day. Delta Green and Yithian agents alike are seeking to investigate the source of this spacetime anomaly..." _

A solid rock face shuddered, as though caught in an abrupt heatwave. The very surface ruptured, becoming caught in a silver and blue light. Three figures stumbled out onto the cold sands underfoot, a silvery glimmer fading from their forms. With the whining and grinding of complex mechanisms, the gateway closed, segments snapping back together .

'Aha, here we are. The year 2013. In the ruins of the Yithian's city.' Theodore explained.

'Is it night?'

'No... It's... Just after midday. I think we're in the middle of an eclipse.'

An archeologist was nearby, he was busy excavating a portion of the ruins that was sticking out of the sand.

'Excuse me, sir?' Kara rushed over to meet him.

Sensing someone to talk to, the archeologist finally freaked out. 'It's night! All the time! I can't deal with this!'

After taking several deep breaths he finally calmed down. 'Oh... You're the ones he was telling us to look out for.'

'Huh?'

'Over there.' He pointed to a small encampment a short distance away.

'What in the blazes of Carcosa have you done?!'

A figure, dressed in a smart suit most unsuited for the desert climate. Those hellfire golden eyes, however, stirred the most vile of memories from Kara's first day of moving to her new school. Their science teacher, Mr Nathaneil Tepp... Otherwise known as-

'_Nyarlathotep.'_ Kara spoke, shivering.

He was not a happy shapeshifter.

'You fucking morons! You mother fucking sons of bitches! You-!'

His seemingly endless tirade of profane insults continued until he finally burned out and slumped into a chair. 'This-!' He gestured to the area beyond the canopy. '-is your doing!'

'We... Caused the eclipse?'

'_**NO!**_' his roar was a truly terrifying thing, it shook the earth and darkened the skies further. 'Someone who should be here is not...'

He gestured to the empty space before him again. 'It's your doing. So, you three... Will get your _asses_ back into the past, and sort it out. Or I'm going to get _really_ nasty...'

'Have you not noticed? Who is missing here?'

'... Alex?' Kara made a wild guess, recalling another rather... _voracious_ rumour regarding those two that had spread during the latter school years.

'Hmph. Very good. Yes, Alex is not here. After you selfishly left him behind... He perished from septic shock.'

'W-we... killed him?'

'Oh, there is a flicker of intelligence after all!' His voice was bitterly sarcastic and venomous. 'Indirectly, but yes, his blood is on your hands.'

'W... Why do you care?'

'Hm?'

'Why do you care that Alex died? One little human in an impossibly broad universe... Why?'

Nyarlathotep turned away, eyes glinting. 'I have my reasons, little human.'

'What are they?'

He snarled sharply at Kara's question, baring his teeth and looking positively feral.

'Um, Kara... Best not.' Ceaser stated. 'Don't piss him off any more then he already is.'

'Why are we doing what he says-?! I.. I want to have Alex back as much as you do, but surely... if we continue down this path it will only lead to destruction!' Kara continued to complain as they made their way back to a place where Theo could open the time gate.

Now, to save Alex...

All it took was a timely shout from Kara to draw Alex's attention away from his determined end, and-

_... _

_Data corruption. _

_File "2012" has suffered from a Paradox Effect._

_Deconstructing Paradox Effect. _

_Finding start of new timeline to continue reconstruction of events for Sothoth Facility archives._

_... _

_Pnaktous Ruins, _

_April 5th, _

_2:32 Pm, _

_2013 ADX: _

"_The trio of temporal travellers return to the Pnaktous Ruins. The eclipse still darknes the skies, and polyps are being held back by technology of both origins. However, this world is not like the ruins of 2013 AD. Things have changed."_

Alex did not want to come. He complained of feeling tired.

'This... Is an alternate time stream.'

'Huh?'  
'Look. See?'  
Kara leaned over to read the display on his wrist computer as he held it out to her.

"_Silver Gate Matrix:_

_Destination: 2:32 Pm, 03/ 05/ 2013 ADX" _

'You see that? "ADX", it indicates that this is an alternate time stream to the one we first arrived in.'

'What happened to the other one?' Kara asked.

'Well... Theories are debateable. But, most likely, when a timestream leading up to the now no longer makes comprehensive sense, it ceases to exist. Imagine time as a piece of string. When the events down the middle do not make sense to the ending, that bit of string is cut off and a new one is tied on. That becomes the new future.'

The perpetual eclipse still hung over the skies of the excavation site as they returned. The camp was still up, and Nyarlathotep was still waiting for them. However, now waiting along with him was-

'Alex!' Kara cried out, running forwards to hug him.

Alexander Gale, one year older.

'Hi, guys. We knew you'd be coming.'

Kara looked over Alex's shoulder at the shapeshifter behind her- Did... Did he just give her the evil eye?

Why was a cold, manipulative alien acting like this...?

'Now... What's causing the eclipse?'

'I think... ' Alex mused over the representation of the geography. 'The cause of such a thing could be within the ruins themselves. Such a powerful infulence on the timeline is bound to cause some sort of strain.'

'Meaning...?' Kara wondered.

'Meaning, little girl-'

'_Little girl?!' _Kara demanded, she recieved another dark glare for her efforts.

'Do not interrupt me again. Learn to control your tongue or I will tear it from your mouth. It means that a Yithian punched this hole in the timeline, and now it's causing this disruption.'

'Why... Are you here?' Ceaser asked.

'I'm here because I have what I want.' The Crawling Chaos stated with an absolutely playful smirk.

'Ignore him.' Alex muttered, shaking his head. 'I'll come with you. It'll help make the Race calmer. _I'll_ help you seeing as Nyarly's being an uncooperative ass!'

'Tch. Filthy hybrid!'

'Calamitous ass!' Alex called back. The Crawling Chaos leant back in his chair, seeming content and fit to idle away all the time he had.

'It's been a year since I saw you, but for you it's been mere moments, hasn't it?'

'What have you been doing, Alex?' Kara asked the question as they trekked across the cold, dark sands. 'Are you and... Him- _It_... like...?'

'Together? Well, I did say that something was watching me, didn't I? He'll probably kill me for saying this, but... Humans wear masks because they protect the weaker self from the harshness of this world. He wears masks because he's so terrified of appearing weak. Even the prospect of "love" confuses and frightens him. Like how a person would behave when they were a child that was never hugged by their parents. _I hugged him_... And he _freaked. Out._'

'Why?'

'Compassion scares him.'

'Ok. How long have you been together?'

'13 months.'

'That would be... _Shit. _Not long after we left you.'

'Mhmm. I got a reply from my... Blind date search. The real one turned up a short while after he did. It got confusing, and embarassing, and half the resturant customers and staff lost their minds... Not pretty.'

'No, you listen to _me_, Yithian, _I'm_ talking and _I'm _ trying to save the goddamn timeline from total collapse! Big paradox, big distortion! It rips a hole in the fabric of spacetime and swallows up this area entirely, past, present and future! You lose everything! All your texts and knowledge gone! Poof!'

Alex continued to yell loudly at the glassy eyed, alien in a human body.

'Um...' Kara looked to Ceaser. 'Is it just me, or does Alex seem more... _Wild?'_

'OK, it seems to be coming from in the central chamber beneath the city. Problem is; that's where the Ployps are getting out from. I hope you're ready for a fight.'

'Nope.' Kara stated.

'No.' Ceaser chimed in.

'Hmph. Always.' Theo withdrew two loaded, futuristic looking handguns from their holsters.

'Great, shall we go and stop this thing before it blasts a great big crater in history?'

The corpses of dead Polyps were left in their wake as they slid down the path to the cental chamber that had been carved out. Theodore sliding down on his feet to land professionally on the ground below. The rest of the party slid down on their backsides, Kara and Alex laughing, and Ceaser screaming.

'Oh, what is that then?' Theodore was immediatly drawn to the only source of light in the darkened chamber. A large veritcal crack, a split in the wall that shed a most unholy white light.

'Seems to be something stuck in there...'

Squinting into the light, Theo reached into the crack, gritting his teeth sharply as the glove and sleeve of his uniform began to smoke and smoulder, burning from the intense heat and light.

'It's... It's... Almost... Gah!' He pulled his arm free, dropping a smoking, heated object onto the floor before him. Alex gave him a canteen of water to allow him to put out the small fire that had broken out on his sleeve.

'Ah, t-thanks.'

'What _is_ this...?' Alex crouched next to the object that Theo had withdraw from within as the Detla Green Agent began to stick more of that strange blue tape over the crack in the wall. It was metal, or stone, or some strange composition that he had not seen before. It appeared to be a fragment of a much larger object, curved slightly, smooth on the outside, yet ridged on the inside.

'This looks like...' Theo's voice faded as he laid eyes upon it too.

'..?'

'Nothing. Now, with that distortion closed, things should revert to normality and the eclipse should end.'

'Aha!' Theodore was almost blinded by the sunlight as they returned to the surface. 'There we go, that's a lot better.'

'Ugh... Now it's too hot.' Alex complained, sharply wiping his forehead with his sleeve.

'One year in the future, and he still hasn't changed much.' Kara tutted, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face.

'Hmmmm? What did you find, Gale...?'

The Crawling Chaos quickly snatched the strange material from Alex's hand the moment he was in range. With a strange curiousity, he began to look it over, tapping fingers against it to check the sound resonance, sniffing it.

'Please, don't do what I think you're going to-' Alex began.

Nyarlathotep sharply licked the object before nibbling on it, testing it's strength and endurance.

'You did...' He turned away, running a hand down his face.

'It's... It is... Ugh... It's disgusting.' Yep. Horrible taste.' He tossed it aside, onto a table. 'Bleh, now I have to find something to get rid of it...'

'Here. Try this.' Alex passed him a bottle of aged scotch. The Outer God had downed it in seconds flat and a few deep gulps.

'Hmm... Bit better.' he licked his lips lightly, looking around with hungry eyes.

'I'd... Say you should leave, that look in his eyes means that what comes next won't be pretty.' Alex examined his fingernails

'He's looking for food.'

'F-Food?'

'The last time it was some poor guy's heart and kidney.'

'Ok! Let's go!' Kara grabbed Theo and Ceaser's arms, dragging them away.

'Bye! See you soon!' Alex waved them off, only for Theo to effortlessly drag them back.

'Wait. You're a future version of our Alex, you know all that happens next. You've already lived it.'

'I have, yes.' he nodded. 'I know where you take us, and I've seen it all.'

Theo had dropped them off back in 2012 before returning back to whenever it was he had come from. He returned only a day later, stating that his boss had ordered him to bring them with him. Alex's excitement over time travel was only dulled by his more recent experience.

'Last night... I was sure I... Sensed something invisible, sitting on the end of my bed, just watching me.'

With books, food, water, medical kits, weapons, and equipment packed within their rucksacks, the party set off, following Theo through time.


	3. Chapter 3

_Heliopolis, 500F,_

_Main bridge, _

_March 3rd, _

_6:32 Pm,_

_5010 AD: _

"_It was been said that there were things mankind was not meant to know. It is here- at the head offices of the Chrysalis Corporation- that they decide to prove those people wrong. With holographic billboards, neon lights, and aircars whizzing between towering skyscrapers, this truly is the city of the future." _

'Oh... Oh wow.' Alex could only laugh in joy as they looked at the mega-city that spread around and rose up towards the heavens.

'Not bad...' Theo agreed. 'Not bad at all. Now that-' He turned, looking to the tallest of all the skyscrapers around them; it was designed as a straight coloumn, the very top of the building split into two segments, twisting together into a single point. It looked rather sinister.

'That... That's not right. That should be a Delta Green building.'

'According to this, it's the... Chrysalis Corporation.' Alex mused, looking at a holographic map on a nearby railing.

'No. This is wrong. Someone's changed time.' Theodore took a few calm breaths trying to still the panic setting in his voice and body.

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 101F,  
Hidden Chamber: _

The woman shrieked as her skin began to blister and bubble, her throat burned, voice raw.

'This level of pain appears to cause you some distress...' A man looked over his notes, tapping a pen against a redesigned tablet screen. 'On a scale of one to ten, please describe how much pain you are experiencing.'

She shrieked once again.

'Seven?'

_400F, Presentation Hall: _

'VitaStim. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 51st century way to get fit.'

The smartly dressed, sharp suited figure softly adjusted his slim glasses before fixing the watching crowd with a devilish, handsome grin. 'Minimal effort, no exercise. Just one pill per week and fat shall never trouble your ideal body again.'

'Excuse me.' A hand was raised amongst the crowd, a woman. 'Penny Worthing, reporter for The News. Tell me, Mr Monsiegny; as CEO for the Corporation, what do _you_ have to say about rumours of corruption, strange activities, and placebo- or _worse_- drugs?'

The Director calmly licked his lips. Pulling his glasses off, he flashed another smile.

'Come now, Penny... This is the world of business, rumours will be seeded amidst the populace in an effort to drive me out of business.'

_601F, Director's Office: _

That meeting had gone... Well. He stood at the window, looking down on the city spread out below, caught in the darkness of an evening storm. He was in his element here, in the dimly lit office in a sharp black suit, a crimson, gold tipped scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, the sharp glasses perched on his nose and framed those deep, dark eyes gave him the haughty air that someone of his profession and influence deserved.

_Heh..._  
That was what he told them anyway.

'Director?'

He did not yet respond to his secretary. Let her tarry in anxiety for a while longer.

'Director Monsiegny?'

'Hmm?' Now he turned and fixed her with those jaded eyes.

'Um... M-my shift's over now. I-I just came to say good night.'

'Ah, of course. Good night, Amanda.' He knew that she would run as soon as she was clear of the building. She always did.

_Heliopolis, _

_Main Bridge, 500F: _

'This is the wrong path to the future.' Theodore checked over the computer responses. 'According to the records from my time, that was a Delta Green building- one with a rather nice resturant on the top floor. That just looks sinister.' He looked around before grabbing a passerby; a man in his early twenties, with his long back hair tied in dreadlocks, dressed in clothes of neon blue with glowing golden piping along the sleeves and legs.

'One question, answer me quickly.' the Delta Green Agent demanded.

'Yes?'

'What is the Chrysalis Corporation?'

'It's... Some big global scientific corporation, they make stuff to help humanity, technology, gene implants, nanotechnological medicines.' He replied, brushing a stubborn braid back behind his ear.

'So... They're like the latest "uprgades"?' Kara enquired.

'Yeah... Guess so. I've... Never thought about it like that.' Those earth brown eyes glanced to the Corporation building.

'Hm, well, where was this Corporation first proposed?' Theodore asked.

'According to... history books, it was first created in the Sothoth Facility, in the year... 4955. The blueprints were drafted by a Mr... Alexander Gale.'

Kara's heart skipped a beat.

'Is this a paradox?' Theodore wondered, looking to the building. 'We go to the Sothoth facility in the past and... create this place in the first place?' His brow creased in mild confusion. 'Speaking of which... Where _is_ Alex?'

Ceaser and Kara looked around, it was true, Alex had been snatched from them.

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 601F, _

_Director's Suite: _

Alex did not know what had happened. He had been snatched away from his friends by a maelstrom of darkness that had dumped him here, onto a rich, crimson leather sofa, another opposite him over from the glass topped coffee table. A fire crackled merrily in the fireplace, filling the room with warmth and light and giving it a pleasent atmosphere. A soft plush, deep red carpet, a bar full of various alcoholic drinks, and a stack of unsigned paperwork left on the coffee table. Admittedly it was _good_ to get out of the rain and into warmth, but _how_ did he end up here? What had brought him here? Here he was, dropped in an unfamilliar time, in unfamilliar surroundings, and all alone-

A clink of ice and glasses, liquid being poured from the bar. The glass floated through the air- No.. The glass clasped in the shadowy talons slowly becoming more solid and human.

'_Look at you...'_

The smartly dressed man removed his glasses, placing them on the table, before lounging back in the opposite sofa, seeming to wind down from a stressful day.

'You are so young.'

'You don't recognise me, do you? No, you're still too young.' With an amused smirk, he took a sharp sip from his glass, savouring the taste and licking his lips.

'Mm...' Those eyes looked back to Alex, now a dark black turned a soft golden colour. 'Oh, don't look at me like that, Alex.'  
With a clam smile, he stood from his own seat and moved around to sit next to Alex. The other immediatly shuffled away, only to be stopped and dragged back by an arm draped over his shoulder. This guy, or _thing_ was being very... Relaxed around him, powerful, dangerous and lazy, like a well fed lion.

'Now, now... Don't squirm so much. I would hate for you to hurt yourself.'

'W-why are you doing this?'

Nyarlathotep's eyes flitted to him as he took another sip, that deep golden glow was now like fire, smouldering with an intense heat. The look and passion threatened to burn into Alex's very soul.

'Hm. Perhaps this will permit you to realize?' He placed the glass down on the table, next to the unfinished paperwork, grabbed Alex by his damp t-shirt and crushed his lips against the other's.

This was something Alex immediatly tried to fend off.

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 423F, _

_Lab 32 Sigma: _

If it wasn't things exploding and unstable experiments, it was the damn Cult of Nyarlathotep. Couldn't they go and do their insane chants elsewhere?  
Was that just the sound of glass breaking? A pained scream echoed from inside.

Damn human sacrifices-

Why were the rest of them suddenly screaming in pain? Clawing desperatly at the door, blood seeping out from underneath, the blood caught in the pale light of a crack in the wall. There seemed to be something stuck in there...

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 601F, _

_Director's Suite: _

'Mmph-! Stop it!' Alex forced him off finally, quite sure that tongues were _not_ meant to be that... flexible.

'Hmm? Don't worry...'

Alex cringed, feeling a tanned hand stroke his cheek softly.

'You'll have three thousand years to adjust.'

_Wait... What? _

'_Warning: A biohazardous outbreak has been detected within Heliopolis. Citywide quarantine initiated.'_

'Hm?' He snapped from his hazy, affectionate state, looking up at the holographic display that had appeared on the wall above the fireplace, a ton of data scrolling past at a blistering pace.

'Oh. No... That's not good. No, no...'

'What?' Alex stood up, standing next to him. 'What is it?'

'We have an outbreak of Devourers in the city, Alex.'

_Heliopolis, _

_Main Bridge, 500F:_

Panic had erupted within the city. With the announcement of the quarantine, a strange shimmer of energy passed over the sky, sealing the entire city within a forcefield bubble. One of the passing cars drifted from it's lane, clipped the forcefield and was sent sprialling out of control, plummeting into a walkway below. The explosion severed one end of the walkway, causing the anti-gravity mechanisms to fail, and the bridge collapsed into the one beneath it.

Signs, advertisements all around Heliopolis were switched off, replaced by a red background and yellow biohazard symbol. The directions of the sloping walkways changed, becoming single direction in a irresistable force, designed to shepard the citizens to the designated safe zones. 

'It must be coming from the Corp. I'd wager that's where Alex is too! C'mon you three!'

'Theo, you're trained to deal with biohazards?' Kara wondered as they ran after him.

'No. I'm Delta _fucking _ Green, I'm trained to protect the human race during vulnerable periods caused by outside interference from beings who would use us as either slaves or food.'

They didn't go far before they met their first obstacle; a slope, it was going in the wrong direction. Ceaser hurried up it, but the force, speed and slickness from the rain was too much and he was soon sent tumbling back down to them.

'Guess... We can't run against it.' He panted.

'Now, you... Um...'

'Drake. Drake Donovaugh.' replied the dreadlocked native.

'Yes, Drake. This system is run automatically, but there must be an control box nearby, containing some kind of override to let us manually change the direction here. Do you know where it could be?'

'No. I'm not a mechanic! I'm just a goddamn baker! I'm not even very good! I-I don't want to die of a horrible virus!' He calmed down quickly. 'Though, I'd wager it is that thing there.'

They turned their attention to the box built into the nearby wall.

'Hang in there, Alex.' Kara looked to the Corporation building.

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 601F, _

_Director's Suite: _

'What's a Devourer?' Alex wondered, bracing his mind just encase the information returned to him was... _Unsuitable_ for him to proccess.

'A defect in the human gene. A rejection of evolution that the Elder Things tried to breed out of you. They failed and before they knew it, they were drowning in these things.'  
Nyarlathotep took the unfinished document from the table and flicked through it before passing it to Alex.

'Here. _This_ will provide you with all you need to know.'

"_I would not wish a fate so cruel upon my worst enemies as to turn into a Devourer. To turn into such a monstrosity is to lose any semblance of who you once were. All that is left of "you" are scattered memories, fragmented parts of the ego. The physical depiction of a Devourer varies depending on their current tatic form seeking out food. When hunting, their waiting/ resting form is indifferent from that of who they once were as a human. They will slump on the floor, seeming unconscious or dead as they __**weight**__ in any viable location where prey is likely to appear. Upon being discovered, or openly chasing their prey, they shed their human guise and morph into a humanoid creature reminescent of a __**Shaggoth***__. While their __**slimy/ gooey****__ skin is not corrosive like their Shoggoth counterparts, a Devourer __**possessess**__ claws strong enough to easily rip apart a steel structure, let alone a human corpse. _

_Their jaw, and by extension, "mouth" are formed of four seperate parts, the edges of both sides of this jaw are layered with incredibly sharp teeth. They appear to be capable of absorbing nutrients through their skin, despite also eating through ingestion of meat/ organic matter through the mouth. _

_Director's notes: This file is absolutely atrocious for the reasons listed below: _

_* The correct spelling is "Shoggoth". Please keep your nymphomanic tendancies out of mind in the work place. _

_** "Gooey"? Surely we can think of a better description. Let's see how far we can push that fragile grey matter, hmm? _

_- The number of spelling and grammar mistakes have been underlined. Fix them before approaching me with something like this again. I will not be so forgiving next time."_

_Heliopolis, 500F: _

'There we go.' Theo groaned, managing to turn the switch from automatic onto a manual setting based on the direction they needed. With the sharp snap of mechanisms changing, the direction of the slope's conveyr belt was reversed, allowing them to travel upwards to the next walkway.

'What's happening to this city...?' Drake wondered in a whisper.

_Heliopolis, 499F, _

_Shopping Avenue: _

'Everybody, run!'  
Panic broke out into the streets, citizens fleeing away from the swelling destruction. A lone reporter and her cameraman stood strong. Adjusting her hairbun and blouse in the rain before looking to the camera.

'... This is Anna Calypso, reporting to you live from Heliopolis where a strange outbreak appears to have transformed a larger number of the citizens into strange monstrosities! They have already attacked and kiled several others, who themselves have turned, and the origin of such a biohazard appears to be coming from the Chrysalis Corporation's head office as all eyes turn to them for-' She looked confused as her cameraman stepped away, fear in his eyes, he dropped the camera and ran.

'M-Mike? Why did you stop rolling?'

She turned looking for what had terrorised her co-worker-

A Devourer, dripping black slime as it's midnight body staggered towards her, blood red eyes staring, it finally attacked, jaw splitting open and sinking those teeth into her neck. She could only whimper weakly, feeling blood soak her blouse collar crimson. After tearing half her throat out, it tired of her and began to search for a new meal, her dying body collapsing to the wet ground, glassy eyed and twitching feebly.

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 601F, _

_Director's Suite: _

'Slimy git...' Alex snarled, holding an alcohol bottle as a weapon. 'U... Undo it! Make them normal again!'

'I cannot, they chose to splice their genes to this state, making them vulnerable, now there is nothing left of who they were.'

'_Liar!' _Alex howled, throwing the bottle, which the Crawling Chaos easily sidestepped, and it smashed against a far wall. 'Stop lying! What is it?! An addiction? A_ compulsion?!'_

'Clearly...' Another voice, familliar, spoke out behind Alex. 'This requires a delicate touch. Something that you lack, Nyarly.'

Nyarlathotep smirked playfully, golden eyes smouldering once again.

Alex turned, looking to see who it was that stood in the doorway, his mouth fell open in surprise. 'You... You're... Me?'

'How is this possible-?'

'No!' The other, slightly older Alex took a sharp step back. 'Don't touch me. You'll cause a paradox that would destroy two thirds of the universe, and ruin everybody's day.'

'Mmm... Yes.' The Crawling Chaos agreed, sliding closer to Alex, close enough to feel the Outer God's frigid breath on his cheek. Naturally, the hybrid squeaked in fright, trying to escape.

'Nyarly, please.' The future Alex demanded, folding his arms.

'Yes, Alex.. _Beeggg..._It drives me wild.'

'Please, get out. You're clearly making me very uncomfortable.'

With a deep, rumbling chuckle that rattled Alex's bones, he gave a cherishing lick to the face before striding off.  
Alex was pretty sure he'd be traumatised for the rest of his life. _However long that now seemed..._

_Heliopolis, 500F, _

_Shopping Avenue: _

'Dear Gods...' Kara was nearly speechless as they looked down on the avenue beneath them, bodies slumped everywhere, some people fleeing from the lurching, figures seemingly formed from slime reminescent of humanoid shoggoths. Those claws looked incredibly sharp...

'Don't let them touch you. Don't startle any of the ones lying down.' Theodore ordered. 'We move slowly and, if need be, find something to set them on fire.'

'Fire kills then, I take it?' Ceaser wondered.

'Yes. It drives their cell reproduction and vibration into overdrive. They essentially kills themsleves trying to- What are you doing?' His attention shifted to Drake who was flicking through the holographic touchscreen of a literally paper-thin mobile phone.

'I'm trying to send a send an S.O.S. to my sister, she's out of town and she can alert the proper authorities to what's happening here. If they can send military forces, then-'

'You can't do that.' Theodore shook his head. 'If they force entry to this city, then they'll break quarantine.'

'I am _not_ dying here!' Drake snarled, turning away as he tapped his phone. Unfortunately, he was blind to what was going around him and was unaware of the Devourer directly before him. Unaware, that is, until it had impaled him on it's claws. The phone clattered to the ground, still displaying the lack of signal, droplets of blood staining the pale blue screen.  
Of course, had this been any others, they likely would've been too shocked to move. However, repeated tolerance had made them desensitized to deaths and other occasions.

'Run!' Kara demanded, taking the lead as she hurtled down the conveyr slope next to them.

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp, 601F: _

'You're... His _pet?'_

'Pet is the wrong word. Distasteful. No, no. I am... A friend, a lover, a partner in crime.'  
The future Alex sat opposite his younger self, after withdrawing a bottle of water from the fridge underneath the minibar.

'But... He's like... Ancient, forever, and impossibly complex. You're... _Me.'_

'Please, don't sell us so low. In his eyes, humanity is fleeting. So, he picked me up before I was buried under the swarm of death and rebirth, and dragged me along with him into eternity.'

'But, why... Me? Of all the people here, past and future.'

'I have asked him that so many times.' His future self took a sharp gulp of cold water. 'He always says to me; _"Gale, if I could have any creature of my choosing, I would gladly raze the universe asunder so that I may be only with you."_ Personally, I say it's because we're still being afflicted by that... _damn _rumour started all those years ago... And... Sometimes, I think it's because he needs someone to confide in.'

'Any... Other reasons?'

'Yes. I am his... "Morality Pet".'

'I thought you just-'

'It is distasteful, yes.' the Future Alex nodded. 'He enjoys my presence because I pose no threat to him. I _understand_ the hidden depths hidden behind the masks he wears. He considers me... Someone who can't lie to save my life.'

A sly grin slipped onto his features as he took another gulp.

'Or so he thinks. After all these centuries next to him, hearing him spin lies like a spider spins it's snaring web... You learn a trick, or five.'

'You are aware of what a "persona" is, me?'

'A psychological mask used to hide the weaker, gentler part of the psyche from harm.'

'Yes... "_We wear the mask that grins and lies. It hides our face and shields our eyes."_'

'Paul Laurence Dunbar.'

'Yep.' his future self nodded. 'Now. Our friends will be arriving shortly to take you with them. Tell them that this design came from the Sothoth Facility. Theo will know the rest. Stop this future, please. No-one should have to die like this.'

Alex, the _present_ Alex stood up, making to leave. The moment he opened the door, he was seized in another fiery kiss by the shapeshifter on the other side.

'Oh, for goodness... Stop that!' The future version demanded, rolling his eyes.

He could see Nyarlathotep looking over at him with amusement in his smouldering gold eyes. The smouldering flames were a sign that he was in a very good mood.

'I am standing right here!'

'Yes. But this one is so innocent...' The Crawling Chaos growled.

'B... But, if he likes you so much, Me? Won't he follow you if you leave?' Alex wondered.

'Yes, he will. But even if I do, it won't change things; this city is still doomed.' The future Alex confirmed grimly.

_Heliopolis, Alley: _

_97% city population infected._

There was a back door in the Corporation building at this level. A fire exit.

'Um...Theo, I don't mean to hurry you.'

'Yes. I've grasped the _severity _of this situation!' The Delta Green Agent demanded, currently messing with the wiring inside the locking mechanism next to the door.

'I... I think those things have got our scent.' Ceaser began to look unnerved, hearing the snarlings and growlings coming forever closer.

'What are they anyway?' Kara kept her guns trained on the empty alley before them. 'Aliens?'

'No. For once it's strictly human in origin.'

'_Human?!'_ Kara sounded in disbelief. 'How can it be human?!'

'It's a defective gene in our DNA... It's dormant, it's just... _There._ But wake it up...'

'... And you get those things?' Kara wondered.

'Correct.' The lock sparked, causing Theo to drop the cables in shock as the door unlocked. 'Aha. Get in, quickly. This door isn't going to keep them out for long. That's if they're not inside already.'

_Heliopolis, _

_Chrysalis Corp: _

'You're going now. Aren't you, Alex?' His future self folded his arms, finally managing to pull the Outer God away from him.

'Where are you going now?' The Crawling Chaos sounded like a whining child...

'He's going to get out of the city before things turn nasty. Oh, and about that nursery rhyme. you wanted to know.'

'...?'

'You know. The one to tell _Yog's_ people and that charming _Delta Green_ Agent? "_Tick Tock goes the clock, and all the days that fly, tick tock goes the clock, for soon you all must die."_'

Coming out in his own voice made it sound so sinister.

'What's... This about?' Those soft golden eyes flitted between the two versions of the same person, 'Telll meeeee!'

'Oh, go off and sulk over your plans.' The future Alex demanded, pulling him away and onto a sofa. 'Off you go, Alex. Time waits for neither man, woman, or eldritch... _Things.'_

'Alex!' Kara grabbed him in a hug as they met him on the stairwell about halfway up, after avoiding several "dead" bodies slumped along the stairs.

'OK... Do we have everyone? Good. Now, let's get the fuck out of here.' Theo ordered, reaching for his strange time gate device.

'Do you enjoy my presence so much that you push me to this, Alexander?'

The Crawling Chaos purred lightly, looking down on Alex as he lay on the sofa next to him.

'No, that's just your ego getting the better of you again, you need to stop being so damn smug. I'm only here to distract you.'

'Hmm? I'm sorry, for a moment there, it sounded like you had just tried to lie to me!'

'No, no. 'Cause you see, nothing you did here will matter... 'Cause, me and my friends are going to alter the timeline, and then this timestream will unravel. To be replaced with a bright, gleaming future.'  
It took a full few seconds for The Crawling Chaos' brain to catch up, and then-

'Ahhh, you've learned well, little human.' He playfully ruffled Alex's hair.


	4. Chapter 4

_Arkham,  
Sothoth Facility, 15F_

_November 12th, _

_4954 AD: _

_"In the future, the city of Heliopolis is caught in the cold grip of the Crawling Chaos, and the citizens have been transformed into monstorous creatures known as Devourers. The Sothoth Facility is Delta Green's main archive and information processing facility. It is run by a supercomputer that possesses unmatched processing power, able to process information at the speed of thought. It may know how this horrific future began." _

'_Yithian entity detected. System lockdown in proccess.' _

'Let me guess...' Alex slumped into a comfy computer chair. 'We just got locked in this room?'

'Correct. You are... Part Yithian, hm?'

'Metaphysically, yes.'

'That settles it. Your abnormal brainwave patterns have set off the security systems. The people of this time are very... at odds with them. They worry that the Yithians would steal everything from here and leave us with nothing in return- _which they would_...' Theo finished in a growl.

'Hmm, wow, this is quite a pickle you four have got yourselves into.'

Another Alex, a future version stood outside their sealed room, looking in through the energy barrier over the doorway. 'Or "_Trapped like a bunch of sardines in a tin, with the smarts to match._" As _He_ would say.'

'Anyway, that's enough flapping about like fish in a tin.'  
He accessed the glowing pad next to the door, muttering as he worked.

'I told them to fix this thing...'

'Alex... And... Alex?' Kara wondered. 'But... You'd be over... Two thousand years old...'

'I am, yeah.'

'But you look... twenty two...'

'It's no fun if die, or go- even more- mad, or age into dust, is it?' There was an amused sparkle in his emerald eyes.

'_Lockdown status lifted.' _The barrier finally deactivated.

'Aha, welcome to the Sothoth facility- Don't touch me Alex, you'll-

'Cause a paradox. I know.' Alex muttered, walking past.

'Correct. You are me, after all.'

'Kara. Ceaser.' He hugged each of them in turn. 'I'm... I'm glad I can see you again. I...'

He looked very haunted.

'Each day... I worry that I'll forget your faces... It gets harder to remember.'

The facility was a large expanse of neon lights and holographic screens, information scrolling across the walls at a pace so fast they blurred. Small chambers filled with computers also scrolling with information. At the very heart of the complex was a large column, crackling with energy like a futuristic reimagining of a Tesla coil, the very top with a large glowing stack and shape of blocks, glowing with circuitry and lights.

'Stupid machine...' Alex promptly thumped the computer screen as the files froze on screen for a while. 'Don't know what's wrong with it today. There's too much... weird stuff happening lately.' He turned away to face them, missing the bright blue and white of the screen flicker into red and gold for a sparse moment with incorrect lines of code before returning to normal.

'If this keeps up, I'll have to defragment the harddrive again. That takes _months.'_

'Alex, does this place have security?' Theo wondered.

'Hmm? The most important building in human history? Yes, of course we have fucking security!'

'Wow... This Alex is scary.' Kara gulped, folding her arms.

'It's on the ceiling.' He pointed to the glowing strip of bright blue light that ran across the ceiling above them. 'Capable of looking 360 degrees and recognising problems even on a molecular level. It's watching you.'

Kara tried to ignore how sinister that last statement had sounded.

'Hey, Theo, what do you make of this?' Kara and Alex had located a note left on a desk in one of the rooms.

"_Matthew, _

_Mommy knows that you have trouble finding your way home, so she has laid out a trail of arrows to help you find your way. This is important, so whatever you do; DO NOT ABANDON THE ARROWS!  
Remember, Matthew, _

_Mommy loves you."  
_A neon blue arrow had been placed on the wall next to it.

'Hm...' The Delta Green Agent didn't seem to be paying attention, he was looking at the security strip above them, scrutinizing it.

'You can go and follow your breadcrumb trail, I need to do a bit of research.'

This was very strange... Very strange indeed. The facility's software was rewriting itself. Information was being skewered, altered. The information was wrong.

'Very well... Time for a bit of data protection.'

Theo set a pace, typing rapidly, he was aware of being watched the whole time.

'Stop!' Ceaser grabbed Kara mere moments before she could follow the arrows right off the edge of a walkway.

'Woah... Cheers, Ceaser...' Kara peeked over the edge softly. Several floors below, almost where the lights ended into a soupy darkness, a mangled, burnt body could be seen, caught amongst wires with electricity crackling over his form. 'This note...'

'That's not a woman's handwriting.' Alex took it from her, his eyes wide. 'It's _mine._'

'Yes, I killed him, alright?! I led that idiot to his doom!' The future Alex's face was the picture of rage. 'He fucking deserved it... Everyone treated that autistic nutjob like he was some saintly genius! _Genius?!_ His mother's been dead for two years! Now people look at _my_ work again.'

'F... Future me scares me...' Alex gulped. 'I... I don't want to end up like this-'

'_Tough!_ This is me! This is who you become!'

'So...' Theo continued to work as he spoke. 'Alex tried to change _him_, but it backfired, and wiped out his moral judgement.'

'He's... _I'm_ like the Old Ones...' Alex hugged his body tightly, looking depressed.

'Mhmm... I would like a moment of your time to question you all. Do you feel like we're being watched?'

An uneasy silence settled at Theodore's question.

'I've been getting this sense since we arrived here... Added to that, some of the files here have been altered recently.'

'I did it?'

'No. This was done from inside the system.'

'Cyber terrorists?'

'No. This facility has the best firewalls of it's time. I feel that this machine has violated it's programming.'

'_"Tick tock goes the clock, and all the years that fly. Tick tock goes the clock, for soon you all must die..."' _Alex repeated that ryhme out of boredom.

Theo's eyes widened as he listened. 'Tick tock...?'

He took to searching the data again.

'Oh...?'

"_DELTA GREEN DATANET: _

_**TICK TOCK MAN:**_

_Designation: Avatar of Nyarlathotep_

_Origin: Unknown_

_Appearence: Various. But most often manifests through technology. _

_Flaws & Weaknesses: -"_

'Oh, come on!' Theo thumped the computer as the information froze.

'_Warning: Data corruption detected.'_

The computer screen flickered red and yellow before finally switching off.

'Hmm.' The Agent's gaze drifted to the security strip once again. 'So... What does the great and _haughty_ Nyarlathotep want here?'

'It's infected the A.I.?!' Ceaser gasped.

'By now... It is the A.I.'

'Surely, we must have a backup?'

'There is... But it's gone into sleep mode, I'm trying to wake it up-'

A screech of white noise blasted from the speakers in the room.

'Ouch...'

'_This is your last warning._' The voice was rasping, mechanical, like metal scraping. '_Leave and stop interfering.' _

'Or what?' Theodore demanded, expression hardening.

'_Or this facility's self destruct mechanism will be triggered and centuries of knowledge will be lost to you.'_

'Except you won't.' Kara looked up to the security, feeling invisible eyes turn upon her.' You won't do it because Alex is here. Both versions of Alex.'

Static crackled from the speakers

'I'm betting that no matter how bad our situation, you would never do _anything_ that would deliberatly put Alex in harm's way.'

'_What makes you so sure?' _

The walls of the facility changed from their cool neon blue to a violent blood red, text speeding along in gold.

'I'm sure because this is the year 4954, and the earth is still here.'

'Hey, um Nyar... Hey!' Alex waved an arm, drawing it's attention. That was just what Theo needed to subtly work his way into the mainframe. He just needed a few extra seconds to force the Tick Tock Man out of the system.

'Time to take out the trash.'  
'_Stop that, this instant!'_  
Theodore smirked softly. 'I'm doing my job. Protecting humanity.' He tapped the enter key.

'_Cease this transgression-'_

The rasping metal voice was replaced by a cool female voice.

'_Mainframe reboot. Auto-functions resuming.' _

The gold and crimson faded from the screens and walls, replaced by the cool neon blue and white.

'_Restoring corrupted system data.' _

'Ok. The A.I. should undo all of the damage done by Nyarlathotep and set the timeline straight again- Huh?'

Theo leapt to his feet, catching sight of the figure lurching down the walkway towards them. More of them, climbing the walls in a fashion more reserved for insects than humans. Their pale grey skin looked lifeless, some parts had been torn away entirely, replaced by a unusual composite of misfitting technology. These... cyborgs stopped as they reached the walkway outside of their chamber. Simply standing there and watching them.

'Well... Now we know what happened to the missing staff.' Kara spoke with a gulp.

'Typical. Out of my way.'

The future Alex pushed his way through the horde of cyborgs. 'This is so typically you, Nyarlathotep. Always with an extra ace up your sleeve... And schemes within schemes within schemes.'

'Is the Tick Tock Man in them now?' Ceaser asked.

'Hm, they're basic cyborgs, so a concentrated E.M.P should blow out the robotics. The computers in here are E.M. shielded so they should be safe. So then-' The cyborgs began to pound on the glass walls of their chamber. 'I really should get this done.'

The crimson lens of a robotic eye adjusted as it watched what they were up to.

The electrical crackle of the computer matrix outside began to intensify, whining higher. It soon reached a pitch inaudible to human ears before releasing a sudden burst of energy, the party felt the hair on their bodies stand on end. Sparks exploded from the bionic components of the transformed staff before finally shutting down, they collapsed, unable to continue functioning.

'Problem solved, I say. Nothing else here for Nyarlathotep to possess so he's shot off elsewhere.' The Agent looked to the future Alex. 'You can take care of things here, right?'

'Huh? Yeah, I guess...'

'Good. Just to chaeck though, I'll add an extra layer to the firewall. Should keep out any more of Nyarlathotep's attacks. Let's go and examine our handiwork.'

_Heliopolis, 500F,_

_Main bridge, _

_March 3rd, _

_11:23 Am,_

_5010 ADX:_

_"Together, the time travellers have changed the future. The Chyrsalis Corporation that threatened Heliopolis is no more, and in it's place is the architect's dream; the Heliopolis Delta Green Outpost. Life continues here, unaware of the fate that occured in the timeline previously."_

'Ahh...' Theo gave a sigh of relief. 'The Delta Green facility! That's more like it!' He grinned sharply, looking to the eye wateringly beautiful tower formed from rising spirals of white metal, stone, and glass. Crowning it was the D.G. logo done in holographic lights. The darkness had turned into day, storm clouds gone and a clear blue sky left behind.

One TV was showing a news report, speaking out to the citizens.

'_... And the driving should be clean and clear, with five extra lanes open for the New Jersey expressway. This is Anna Calypso signing off. Missing you already!'_

'Hi!' A cheery voice greeted them as footsteps padded across the walkway towards them.

'Alex, hello!' Kara greeted Alex's future self with a hug.

'How nice to see you all again. Hmm, how about we all go for a meal together? My treat. I'll see you later.' With a warm smile, he strode off.

'You look so cheery, Alex.' Kara turned to face him.

'This place is beautiful.'

'We get a free lunch too! Future food!' Kara punched the air, euphoric.

_Heliopolis, _

_Delta Green, 601F_

_Resturant: _

'Oh... Oh wow.' Kara gasped, looking out at the city that spread out before her, stretching into the distance. 'I... I feel like I'm dreaming.'

'Haha... You think that's good? Wait until you taste the food.' The future Alex gave her a small grin, taking a seat at a table. 'I often come here for dinner, it beats cooking, and I can eat while enjoying the really fantastic night view. The entire city lit up is an incredible sight.'

'Ooh. So much food. So full...' Ceaser groaned, leaning back in his chair and staring at the empty plates on the table.

'I've never tasted such good food at the Orion.' Kara gasped again, gulping down water.

'Where's...?' Alex looked to his future self.

'_He_ doesn't like being here. He's gone all grumpy recently.'

'Heh... I wonder why.' Theo smirked to himself, looking out the window at the city below. A marvel of human achievement, and there was still so much more to come...

'It's time to move on guys. C'mon.'

Upon the Agent's instructions, they soon found themselves on the main bridge again.

'Wait... Isn't that-?' Kara stopped them, looking as a familliar dreadlocked figure strode past, dressed in light whites with blue piping, chatting on his phone.

'Yeah... Well it's been really quiet here, no... No. Nothing ever happens here. Are you coming back home soon? Well, it's nice to hear from you anyway.' Drake hung up with a smile before taking a slope up to the next level, he didn't even look twice at them.

_March 3rd,_

_1:12 Pm, _

_2012 AD: _

'Home. You've taken us home?' Kara was not pleased after emerging from the time gate to find familliar surroundings around her.

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'It's because you've been travelling through time, and our medical regulations require that you rest and enjoy leisure time for twelve hours after such exposure to the time gate matrix.'

'Why home then? Why can't... We stay in some futuristic hotel and spa?'

'Emotional attachments help the side effects. These are familliar surroundings.'

'S-_side effects?!'_ Alex demanded.

'Well... You become sensitive to spacetime for a while, you hear and see things from the past, various futures... Alternate timelines, things that... "Could be".'

'I-It is temporary, right?'

'The effects are subjective, but all wear off after prolonged rest.'

'G-good...' Alex looked at the streets and the people passing. 'I'm sure that there are some... bad futures out there.'

'... Hope I don't see any Polyps.' Alex returned to his apartment, hanging his coat up and collapsing on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. 'That would suck.'

His green eyes slowly drifted shut, perhaps a short nap wouldn't hurt after all...

_Gale..._

He opened his eyes, sitting up, it was night. Shadows clinging to the corner of the room and shrouding around his bed. 'Hello?'

There was someone just out of sight, they were standing in the darkness, he could sense them but they remained invisible to his eyes.

'Who's there?'

..._ They always said I was just a tool... _

_Thats not true. _

_... No. A tool doesn't have a brain. A tool doesn't have free will..._

Alex listened to those two voices talk, he reached for the bedside lamp, flicking the switch on and off several times. It didn't work, there was no power. The darkness grew deeper, pressing in on him and causing Alex to cry out in fright as two shadows crashed to the bed with a grunt one smaller, simpler in form, the other never stayed fixed; it constantly warped, stretched and grew. They didn't seem to be aware of him.

_... You don't have to hide from me..._

_... Of course I do. You'll think I'm weak, like they do... _

_... Ahaha... How could I think you weak? You are vastly stronger than me..._

Alex recognised that last voice, he had heard it enough and hated every word it had spoken. The voice laughing had been his... Who was the other-?

His thoughts stopped as he realised.

Ceaser wasn't sure he could recall a time when the streets were so dark... and armed soldiers marched the streets in dark blacks, not disimillar to the Delta Green Agents, but this was more sinister, and Ceaser immediatly took note of the swastika armbands and slinked back into the shadows. Was this what Theo had meant about becoming "sensitive"?

'You!'

'_Shit...' _ His voice was a whisper as one of them spotted him.

'You, come out of the shadows and present your identity papers!'

'W-what?'

'Present your papers!' The soldier readied his gun.

'W-woah, shit! Woah-!'

A strange distortion passed through the air, wiping the soldiers, guns, and darkness from the streets.

'Sir? Are you alright?' A police officer blinked at him, looking concerned.

'H-huh?'

'Are you alright, Sir?'

'Y-yeah... Yeah, I'm fine.' he wiped the sweat from his brow, trembling.

The office moved on.

Kara had a restless night, dreaming of cone like creatures, underground cities fromed from light and shadow, dazzling forests of crystal and glass, and creepy large insects. She could not wait eagerly enough for the sun to rise, and for that fantastic Delta Green Agent to return.

He soon did.

_- Location Uknown -_

_- Year Unknown - :_

'Where are we now?'

'Somewhere we shouldn't be...' Theo seemed mildly unnerved, withdrawing a pair of single lense goggles which he strapped over his eyes, looking around through the softly glowing, pale blue glass at the darkened hall. They had arrived in a large, large chamber, the walls a marble white faded grey in the dim light. There was a strange energy in the air, like nothing that could be found on earth.

'We fell through a crack, a glitch in the gate matrix. This is wrong.'

Their words did not echo, they simply stopped, leaving them in complete silence.  
Kara tenderly took a step forwards. When nothing happened, she took another.

_...Who dares?_

She froze, all of them looking around for the voice that seemed to have no origin or tone. It simply was, deep and rumbling, yet soft and feathery, and all the things between, yet none. It was a mass of perfectly balanced contradictions.

_Explain this intrusion!_

'I... Think we should leave.' Alex's voice held all of his nerves as the air became charged with yet more energy, building up into an unusual wave that was neither hot nor cold.

Theo's gaze flickered to the towering throne at the end of the hall. It seemed empty, but-

But, when he looked away, something flickered in the corner of his eye, something distant, blurry, and not quite here.

'Yes... Let's leave.'

_Pnaktous Ruins, _

_April 14th, 11:21 Am, _

_3454 AD: _

_"Centuries since the original excavation started, the ruins of the Yithian City still draws archeologists from all over the globe, all seeking to make a big discovery and earn their fortune. A strange distortion has struck this zone and era, several people have vanished without a trace..." _

The sky and surrounding landscape had been burnt crimson, caused by what little sunlight made it through the vicious, dust filled storm clouds that had gathered without surrending any rain.

'Wow, they really went to town with this place.' Kara looked around, it was clear to see now that the entire city had been unearthed, and a "town" of tents had sprung up nearby.  
Empty tents that flapped in the dry winds of the storm.

'Ugh...' Ceaser covered his face as best he could with his sleeves, squinting ahead as his eyes began to sting, the hairs on the back of his arms and neck standing up on end.

'You feel it too, don't you?' Theo wondered, clearly experiencing the same sensation visible through the discomfort on his face. 'Something's wrong with the spacetime here. Again.'

'Did you come to visit the ruins?' One of the archeologists was wearing a very simillar fashion to what existed within Kara's time, she was dressed in jeans, a shirt, overalls, and trainers. 'You may want to turn back, a spacetime distortion has set in and people are vanishing left and right.'

'Theo, what era is this? I smell 21st stuff here.'

'It's the mid 35th century. 21st century "stuff" is all the rage now.' The Agent replied, looking around.

Kara noticed several of the archeologists wearing green armbands, upon putting the question to the Delta Green Agent he stated that they wore them to identify them as Yithians. One such Yithian was examining the very depths of the City, searching for tomes that were designed to last eons. It needed the refrence material stored within, just to help it understand. There was the book, lying partly buried beneath some rubble. It was rather amusing that the Humans had not found it.

Yet something was nagging at it... The Humans of this era seemed particually nervous. Not like the primitive kind yet to come, or the scary kind that existed in the far future-

It turned, feeling something wrong in the spacetime around it-

A sharp light filled the chamber, illuminating every corner of the room. It faded as quickly as it had come, leaving a mildly burned green armband to flutter to the ground.

'Let's go... Now.'  
'W-wait! Can't we help them? Theo, stop!' Kara marched after him as he turned heel and strode off.

'I know what this is. I've seen it all before. This was the reason that D.G. had to sink New Orleans and Atlantis.'

'I always wondered why that sank...' Alex spoke quietly to himself. 'I kept blaming the Deep Ones.'


	5. Chapter 5

_Antartica, _

_Omega Compound, Exterior,_

_15th March, 11:32 Pm  
2013 AD:_

"In the early 20th Century, a group of explorers came to investiage this icy reigon, looking for secrets. What they found was the long dead civilization of the "Elder Things". Once the engineers for the Shoggoths, what little of this race that survived has now been pushed into dormancy by the frigid temperatures. Now, one hundred years later, the military has erected an outpost here to see what ancient secrets lay buried, ready to be unearthed and reused by humanity..." 

'GAH! Brr, T-Theo W-why are we here?!' Kara hugged herself, shuddering knee deep in the snow. 'I don't like it. Let's go back to Heliopolis- the nice one.'

'I'm not bringing you all here for holidays, all of these eras and locations are my job. I'm working through my backlog. It's not like I wanted to come here either.'

'Well...' Alex stopped to sneeze lightly, all of them trembling in the snow. 'C-couldn't you have just opened a gate inside the building?'

A large ski lodge structure crossed with harsh military additions- including a barbed fence and gun turrets.

'Why the turrets?' Ceaser had to ask as they tredged across to the front gate. 'What are they expecting to find out here?'

Theo took it upon himself to answer. 'Back in the early 20th century, a group of explorers came here. It didn't end well.'

'Need I ask?' Kara wondered as Theo inspected the keypad on the gate.

'Old city under the snow, albino penguins, and Shoggoths.' The Agent kept it short. 'Insanity and death. Aha!'  
The gate unlocked with a click, moving slowly in the snow.

'What's that...?' Alex looked interested at the small, pointed machine in Theo's right hand.

'Bit of tech from my time. Techie swears that it'll open any lock in twenty seconds or less.'

'If it opens locks, why didn't you use it in Heliopolis?'

'I didn't have it with me, it was still going through the testing phase.'

'C-Can we save the conversations for when we're inside, guys?' Kara demanded, shivering harder.

'Who the bloody hell are you?!'  
Their enjoyment of the interior's central heating was cut off by a fiery, red haired woman in a sweater and lab coat as she strode down the metallic corridor to meet them.

'Oh, that's nice of you, hello.' Kara waved warmly at her.

'B-but how did you get here? How did you get in? I'm not due to have any more drop offs until next week! Oh, that is bloody typical governments, this is all I need right now, them not keeping to their schedules.' She shrugged, shaking her head. 'Well, at least you brought the supplies.'

All of them remained silent.

'You... _Did_ bring the supplies?'

Still silent.

'Oh, brilliant! How long do you expect us all to live off of macaroni cheese and tinned pineapple?! Chef's gone bonkers.'

Theo quirked an eyebrow at that. 'Bonkers? Really...? What are the symptoms?'

'Grouchiness, irritability, and a desperation to refine his cooking skills.'

'Oh...' he gave a relived breath. 'I thought it had started.'

'...?'

'Onset insanity.'

'...Is that _sand_ on your sleeve?'

'What do you mean "onset insanity"?' The red haired woman, Dr Samantha Carson demanded as they strode down the metallic halls.

'Oh, the usual. But both can be divided into two simple categories: Mania, and Dementia. There is also technically a third category, but that's not used often, it's called "Defection".'

'Defection?' Kara wondered. 'As in...?'

'A person's ego collapses, and they turn into cultists in their insanity.'

'Ok, thanks.'

'Well then, sir...' Samantha folded her arms, glaring. 'If you're such an expert, then perhaps you can help identify this case.'

'... In the darkness... I hear the twitchings and sobbings... It comes! Shifting in the darkness! It wants us! Time and space! Our insignificance is but a small gear in the mechanism of something much larger!'

A wide eyed man had been strapped down to a hospital bed in the small medical wing, a nurse sat a short distance away, head in her hands, looking despondent.

'Have you ever seen anything like this?' Samantha opened the door, letting them in. 'Kathy's been keeping an eye on him, and he just keeps repeating gibberish.'

'... It's coming... It's coming... Not measured in space, no never!'

Curious, Theo strode closer, leaning down to look him in the eyes.

'So, it's arrival is measured in time, then?'

'It's not here, it never will be, it will be here soon! It's here now!' The man struggled violently against his bonds, trying to escape. The nurse leapt to her feet, moving quickly to sedate him again.

'Doctor, I would classify this Manic- Hm? What's this...?' He crouched down, examining the man's right hand. It was covered in a complex pattern that looped around the entire of his hand and wrist, the skin had been redened, blistered.

'Do you know what caused this?'

'No fucking clue. Yesterday, he was as sane as I am. Today he's gone crackers.'

Theo sat in the cafeteria, musing over his thoughts, his mind still wondering as to why such a distortion was occuring in the Ruins centuries in the future. He knew an inkling of what this was but couldn't bear to face it. Maybe he could get something to drink, to help clear his head and keep him awake...  
He could hear the cook singing from within the kitchen, stopping to take sharp breaths occasionally, and in all the wrong places...

'Hey, cook?'  
He looked around, a wild shock of dark hair, eyes wide and bloodshot.

'Yeeeessss?' he hissed, looking to him, fingers twitching.

'I was wondering if I could-' Theo stopped suddenly, staring into the cook's eyes. That look... That was the look of-

He threw himself to the floor, just in time to avoid the sharp knife that was launched in his direction.

_-Mania. _

'Ahahaha! I seeeee your ey-... eyes... wat... watching me. Y...ou think I don't see you?!' The voice was broken, twisted, being spoke by someone- or indeed _something- _ that didn't have a complex grasp of human tongues and languages. More knives sailed over Theo's head as he stayed down.

'...L-little creatures... Little bones!' He heard the chef's footsteps retreat into the distance, perhaps searching for a new target.

Theo found him passed out on the ground, Kara, Ceaser, and Alex crouched next to him. The chef appeared to have gone into some kind of coma, twitching occasionally, a irritated mark on his wrist and hand also.

'Did you touch him?'

Kara shook her head at his question. 'We just found him like this. He's got the same mark on him.'

'Theo, what's doing this?'  
'I don't know for sure. It could be inumerable things, or it could be something I've never seen before. It's a big universe and we're making a lot of noise. Sooner or later, we get noticed.' He folded his arms, thinking. 'Who else is here?'

'Just the nurse, the doctor, the nutjob, the cook, and us.' Ceaser replied.

'Dr Carson?'  
Kara stopped as she approached the door to the infirmary, it was bolted shut from the inside., the patient inside was still mumbling, mixed with the sound of the nurse sobbing.

'Hello?' She rapped lightly on the door, making the nurse look up, tears streaming down her face.

'G-Go away!' She ordered. 'You... You're just like Dr Carson!'

'Please, open the door-'

'NO! Go away!'

Kara looked to her right as a door flew open, Alex came rushing out, Dr Carson following in his wake, she looked utterly insane, clutching a knife in one hand, she chased after Alex, frothing at the mouth all the while. Kara's attention however, was drawn to the irritated red skin of her neck, hidden barely beneath a tattered strip of faded golden cloth.

'Great! _Now_ something's chasing us!' Alex jested, looking back over his shoulder to Kara as he rushed past. 'Kara!'

'Yeah?!'

'Where did I leave my book?!'

'Alex...' Kara shook her head sadly. 'Why can't you remember these spells?'

'I wrote them down so I wouldn't have to remember!' Alex had turned a corner and vanished.

Shaking her head again, Kara pulled the small black notebook from her rucksack, battered and dogeared as it was, one wouldn't think that such an unsuspecting little thing would contain enough arcane knowledge to level a city. Personally, Kara couldn't make heads or tails of most of the symbols scrawled within, but Alex could use them to turn bones to ash, heal wounds, manipulate minds, and conjure creatures from who knew where.

'Why is she interested in you?!' Kara had managed to get the two of them in sight again. Alex was standing on top of a large stack of computer equipment, out of the woman's reach as she slashed a knife wildly. 'Have you pulled?'

'I'm guessing it's not my looks.' Alex laughed softly, looking over at the book Kara clasped. 'Uh, could I have that, please?'

'Sure.' Kara casually tossed the book. It defied all logic for the book to reach him across the room, but it did regardless.

'Ok... Let's see here. How do you like this...? _Admora Adevni...' _

The possessed Dr Carson reeled back, snarling like an animal.

'Hmm, don't like that, huh? What if I were to remove a hand?'

'Alex, no! Just get that cloth from her neck!'

'That was what _that_ was supposed to do. I'm not an idiot, Kara!'

Ceaser and Theo stood outside, listening to their arguement amidst the blizzard that continued outside.

'Do you know what that is, Theo?' He looked to the Agent expectantly.

'It's a revulsion jinx, I used to have problems against guys who used those. Made me feel like my skin was on fire-'

'No, what Dr Carson's got on her.'

'Uh, no. But I can guess where it came from.' Theo looked back down the corridor.

'_Shroasnda!' _

The possessed woman shrieked deafeningly, the cloth around her neck glowing slightly, hazy in a strange heatwave of energy around it.

'Yes, haha! Get back!' Alex flicked through the pages again. Something in here to do better than just stun her, but nothing that wouldn't-

_Bonk!_

Dr Carson slumped to the floor, Ceaser stood behind her, brandishing a frying pan.

Or he could just leave Ceaser to it. Strong, broad shouldered Ceaser, the _Tank_ of the team.

'Don't touch it. Not with your bare hands.' Theo warned them as Kara reached down to investigate the golden cloth.

They held it at arms length with a pair of salad tongs, it reeked of decay, and the very metal that held it began to rust and give.

'So... Where did this come from, Theo? What is it?'

'This... Is a scrap of silk from the tattered robes of the abstract horror, the King in Yellow. I trust that I don't need to explain more?'

'No.' Alex glared at it, revolted. 'But where did it come from?'

'Let me show you, before I shove it back where it belongs. _This-' _He held up the tattered scrap, the tongs beggining to break apart. '- Has no place in our world.'

A crack.

A crack glowing in the wall, looking like the very spacetime around it was warped and broken.  
'Another one...? Are these things following us?!'

The Delta Green Agent shook his head at Kara's question as he tossed the tongs holding the yellow strip back into the fire within.

'No. It would be more accurate to say that they are the cause of my backlog...'

He began to pull out a roll of that blue tape, preparing to pull it shut. He just couldn't take leaving it any longer...

_Pnaktous Ruins, _

_November 7th, 11:51 Am, _

_3553 AD: _

"_Years ago, a never before seen distortion hit the Ruins of the Yithian's City. Numerous members of both the archeology team and Yithian kind vanished, and their disappearence was soon followed by the discovery of ghosts; images left in the place containing their unfinished business that prevented their souls from finding rest. Something terrible had happened, but Delta Green refused to tackle the situation. With no one capable of reversing, or indeed even stopping the distortion, the ghosts were left to wander, and with the passing of the years, they simply became another party of the Ruin's mythology..."_

It was snowing. Snowing in the desert, at first no-one could believe their eyes.

'Alex? Are you OK?' Kara grabbed him as Alex stumbled, clutching his head with one hand.

His emerald eyes looked to her, confused. 'Y... You don't hear that? You're not feeling it?'

What? What is it?'

'They're crying... Calling out to me over and over, so many; "_Help me." "Help me." "Help me."'_ He stopped to rub the tears from his eyes. 'It's just... So sad.'

'One hundred years. Why such a big time gap?'

Theo shook his head but refused to answer.

Alex groaned softly, holding his head and trying to block out the sounds of the dead sobbing.

_Help me..._

He looked up, they were never going to shut up unless he did something. He could see one of them a short distance away, pale against the light, it was a ghostly figure; an imprint, afterimage, a fragment bound to this world by words left unspoken.

_Help me..._

Hugging himself to try and fend off the chill, Alex strode through the crunch of snow, approaching them. She seemed unaware of his presence, staring at the floor and sobbing.

_I was a fool. We never should have had that stupid arguement. If we hadn't...  
It's too late now. This thing is never going to let me go. Mary, my dearest sister..._

_I can never tell you I'm sorry..._

The words echoed, a voice in his mind, pleading for his help across time, space, and various planes.

'She wants to apologise to her sister?' Theo wondered after Alex had relayed the message to them.

'Yes.'

'Alright...' Theo looked thoughtful again. 'If we put these souls to rest, it _might_ shut this thing up, for a while at least.'

'I can't find any Mary.'  
The party regrouped after a sporadic search of the sparse people who were left. One of whom was looking around, confused, and asking Kara if they _"Used to have more people". _

'She's gotta be here, keep looking.'

Another of them, curled up inside an empty tent, scattered belongings lay around the interior, the inside was splattered with blood in some places. Alex strode closer, waiting for their eyes to find him.

_My dearest daughter... I'm sorry that I won't be making it home. I... I know it's got me. I know. I've accepted that. But... It's silly, but I've had this ritual; each morning, where I could see her smiling face from a picture. I... I just want to see her... One last time..._

Alex scoured the belongings that were left around the tent. He finally found the picture, inside a wallet that was stuck under an upturned desk, the image was of an infant dressed in a sheep outfit- complete with ears, laughing. He placed it beside the ghost, who stopped his sobbing immediatly to look down on it.

_My dear daughter... I won't see you grow up into a fine woman, but I'll always watch over you... Farewell... _

__The spirit vanished in a bright light, a contented sigh echoing on the breeze. One of the pleading voices had fallen silent, and Alex was glad. The very spacetime seemed to shake, a loud, echoing roar boomed across the snow.

'...She says that she's very sorry, but she won't be able to-' Kara stopped as the echoing roar reached their ears.

'What is that?!' Mary covered her ears, knees trembling in fear.  
Kara was too dazed to answer, her ears were left ringing as the roar echoed away into the distance. Taking a deep breath, she turned back to Mary.

'Your sister says that she's sorry, but she won't be able to see you anymore.'

'Where did my sister go?'

'She's dead, Mary. This..._Thing_ got her.'

'Oh God...' She took a step back, resting against a ruined wall. 'Alissa... Oh God...'

_I'm sorry, Mary... This creature took me, I was cast out and attacked by something otherworldly. _

_I-I'm sorry... I... I don't belong in this world anymore..._

She too faded away upon having been relayed the news. Theo called them all back together, leaving Mary to silently mourn.

'Huh?' He stopped as his computer beeped, flicking the screen up, he glanced at the message before shutting it again. 'With me. We've just had a report come in; a bunch of Agents from the 1980's just vanished.'


	6. Chapter 6

_- Location Unknown- _

_June 5th, 1:02 Pm, _

_1983 AD: _

_"Time holds many memories of the past. One such memory is the disappearence of five Delta Green Agents during an investigation of a bizzare murder at a local art gallery. The Agents appeared to have vanished completely, no trace of their possible location is known..."_

'This is the first time we've been to the past... Theo, do we have to be careful not to step on butterflies?' They had appeared inside a small storage closet, Kara turning to ask her question.

'Why butterflies-? What have butterflies ever done to hurt you?' He opened the door, allowing them to step out into the brightly lit room beyond.

'It'll be OK, we'll try our best to help find your team and return them here.'  
A Delta Green Agent in an attire similliar to Theo crouched before a sobbing woman who was on her knees. The Agent had blonde hair brushing her shoulders, blue eyes carrying a strong empathy.

Theo strode close to her, folding his arms and staring down on the sobbing woman, he towered over both of them.

'You called, Liz?'

'I did. Five Agents just vanished. "Poof!"' The female Agent stood up, only a few inches shorter than Theo. 'From this time apparently, this poor girl's the only one left of her team.'

'T-the other's vanished... The crack took them!' The native Agent cried out, pointing to where a patch of wall was covered in flourescent blue tape.

'Another. What is with these cracks?!' Theo demanded, striding forwards to give it a closer look. 'Elizabeth, do you know where they could've gone?'

'They're alive, I'd assume that much. I can guess, they've been scattered up and down the timeline.' She shook her head. 'Maybe the crack might've synched with the time gate and thrown some of them into our time. You can go on and start there, I have things left to do.'

She helped the native Agent to her feet.

'C'mon, on your feet, let's go and get a glass of water, you crazy bitch.'

_Grand Capital Arkham, _

_Central Street, 600F,_

_August 12th, 7:34 Pm_

_600,100 AD: _

_"In 600,100 AD, Delta Green is the Government for the Human Empire that stretches across many planets. Their headquaters is within the Grand Capital City of Arkham, one of the most prosperous cities on the entierity of Earth. After having been set back by two ice ages, Humanity has finally recovered stronger and more robust than ever before. Science has progressed to the stage where Mankind is able to build their own tame version of Azathoth. With the city and surrounding areas powered by this 'Neo-Azathoth', Humanity flourishes like never before..." _

Compared to the towering skyscrapers of Heliopolis, Arkham seemed alien in it's architechture, buildings warped and curved, entire islands floated high in the night sky, connected by etheral bridges of energy forming moving walkways. The tallest of all the buildings still on the earth was a dark black tower, splitting into three towering spikes at the top, nestled at the very tips of the spikes was a ball of swirling fire, gold and white in colour, kept in stability by the numerous rings that circled around it rapidly. Upon the building was a bright green light, along with a familliar logo, the words written down either side of the massive glass pane that ran down the center of the building. "DELTA GREEN".

The inside of the Delta Green HQ was a massive tower that followed the massive glass pane upwards to the top floor. Chambers connected by walkways showed various Agents going about their business in offices. About halfway up the building, a holographic representation of the Earth was present, Agents sat on floating computer platforms that orbited the image. On the ground floor, a woman sat in a comfy chair, a tablet computer resting in her lap as she looked over the holographic screens that floated around her, displaying information from various inputs; security feeds, news reports, etcera. She was a simillar blonde to Theo and Elizabeth- making Kara wonder for a moment if they were infact all related- her hair was a fluffy mess that needed combing down, held in place by a bright blue hairband, that was showing the stock prices for some reason. With a small sound of curiousity, she flicked a finger across the tablet and the screens reorganised to show her another information feed.

'Let me introduce our mission control.' Theo strode forwards, resting his hands on the back of her chair. 'This is Margaret.'

'Nice to meet you all.' She didn't even look to them.

'OK, Margaret. We've got D.G. Agents from the past scattered all over time. Liz suggested that one ended up here.' Theo looked up at the screens as they shifted again.

'That would explain the readings I picked up. I've scanned the city inside and out several times over, and I can't find them.'

'So, what's the theory?'

'Most likely, though they're close to the current era and we can't find them, I theorize that they're in an alternate Arkham.' She shook her head. 'If that's the case, then forget about them. They're lost.'

A message pinged up on a screen at eye level.

'The Director wants to see you. All of you. Best not keep him waiting.'

The man who ran Delta Green was a Director McMillan, his office was on one of the highest floors, able to look out across the city in it's entireity, his office was rather zen minimalist, white washed walls, a glass table served also as a screen, a comfy chair in which he sat, three chairs opposite, and a few calming paintings of elysian landscapes. Everything kept "just so".

The man himself was tall, slim, young, and warm. He wore a white suit, white to an almost blinding degree that a speck of dirt would stand out, even his hair was white, dragged back into a long ponytail- Then there was his eyes; his sharp, piercing golden eyes. These eyes were warmer, not infinitely deep, but unsettling all the same in that there came the feeling of being able to see into your soul.

Alex noticed something wrong when he entered, albeit not to the same degree of "wrong" that one would expect when talking unknowingly to Nyarlathotep in the street, but it was still noticeable.

'Please.' Even his voice was warm as he gestured a hand to the chairs before him, a silver watch glinted on his left wrist. 'Kara, Alex, Ceaser, do sit.'

'It's a bit... Sterile in here.' Kara couldn't help herself but to say it as she sat in the padded white chair, it instantly molded to her comfort zones, yet forced her to sit up straight.

'Ooo...' Alex had clearly experienced the same sensation. 'Oh, yeah... I'm gonna love the future.'

The Director chuckled softly at the latter's statment, it was a simple thing, jingling like bells.

'This is the pinnacle of human achivement. From this building we set out across time to correct _mistakes_ in history. Slay cultists, stop summonings, we save innocent lives and make the future a better place. We are mankind's champions. I will not allow the petty schemes of Deep Ones, Mi-go, Yithians, or indeed an overweight octopus to interfere in the future I am building...' His eyes narrowed into slits as he spoke, voice thick with venom. 'One day... We, as a species... Will _crush _them.'

Floors below, Margaret kept a check on the city, also pondering on where the other Agents could've gone too. A ping flared up on one of the screens, altering her to something she had come to expect from all these years working here.

'Attention all Agents on duty within Arkham, we've got a disturbance in Pharmacy Town, the Moonshadow and the Crawler's cultists are fighting. _Again._'

'_I've got it Margaret, don't worry.'_

_Grand Capital Arkham, _

_Black Market, Pharmacy Town, _

_600,100 AD: _

_"In the lower levels of the city, concealed beneath a thin fog was the Black Market, an unregulated, law-lite district that is only occasionally patrolled by Delta Green. As a result, it has become a breeding ground for drug dealers, theives, mercenaries, assassins, and various cults. Also within is the Black Cherry Auction House, where rare items of both alien and arcane value are to be found for sale."_

'Ia! Ia Nyarlathotep! Ia Azathoth!'

'Heathen scum! The Morning Star shall purge you!'

'Shuddup, all of you! I'm flogging wares here!' A merchant hurled a bottle of extremely cheap, yet high priced liqour at the mass of fighting figures in black and white robes as the fought like rival gangs in the middle of the street. 'This is the fifth time this fucking month!'

'Alright, beak it up or I start gassing the place. This one makes you break out in boils that sprout tentacles.' The native citizen, and one of D.G.'s finest, Dr Alexander Gale strode down the street, holding up a homemade bomb for effect. He ducked to avoid a scythe that was flung in his direction, the blade lightly grazing his cheek- it healed an instant later.

'Alright, who threw that?!'

One of the Moonshadow looked to him, midway through gutting one of Nyarlathotep's cultists, their white robes beginning to turn crimson, a half mask on their face.

'You... You have seen him! Lucifer! His.. _Beauty _and _radience_, he is the one who gives us the knowledge to rebel and the power to crush ugly beasts from depths unknown! _Praise Him_!'

_'Praise Him_!' The other's echoed, perhaps without even realising it...

Sometimes Alex wondered if Lazarus' cultists were somehow _more_ bonkers than Nyarlathotep's...

'Is... Something funny, sir?' Alex had to ask, watching the Director suddenly grin to himself.

'Oh? I assure you, it is nothing you need to tax yourselves over.' He waved the question off softly.

A soft buzzing came from the desk.

'Yes?'

'_Sir... It's happening again.' _ Margaret sounded rather worried. '_It's Agent Wallcroft this time.'_

'Alright...' he stood up softly. 'I'll be right down. Apologies, but there's an incident to which I must attend.'

Margaret watched from her comfy chair, tablet hugged to her body as she watched several other Agents attempting to pin down the one that seemed to be in the middle of some kind of fit. They looked around with wide eyes, frothing at the mouth as they blabbered incoherently like their tongue was aflame.

'... Radioactive-explosion-within-the-chicken-complex, rare-trantula-on-the-table-ooh! Lashings-of-prime-minister-Harriet-Jones-in-a-rich-Slitheen-sauce! P-Praise Him! Praise Him! P-Praisehimpraisehimpraisehim-!'

'He's gonna pop.' One of the other Agents, wrestling his left arm to the ground noted. 'Put him out of it.'

'Sorry, Wallcroft.' One of the others unholstered their gun and pressed it to the side of Wallcrofts head, a sharp whine beginning to rise in the barrel-

'_Stop.'_ The Director strode into the foyer, crouching down next to the frothing Wallcroft and reaching out to rest a hand on his head. His fits and thrashing stopped immediatly, he seemed to slip into a deep sleep.

'Margaret, you know what to do.'

The Agent nodded, turning her chair back to the screen. 'Asylum, this is D.G.'

The face of a bored man appeared on a screen to her left, he seemed not to have noticed her.

'Asylum to D.G! Wake up, orderly!'

'Huh-?!' he was started suddenly enough that he nearly fell off his chair. Rather... Questionable moans of a female coming from whatever screen he was staring at, along with the... heightened buzzings of a Mi-go crying for help...

'Stop watching that and listen to me!'

'... Didn't know she could do that with a Mi-go's feelers- Aah! Did y-you want something, D.G?' He gave a shaky, nervous laugh, sweat running down his forehead.

'Yes, we've got another case here. I trust you can send someone round to pick it up?'

'Yeah, sure, sure... I'll just add that to the list.'

'Good. Return to your... _Filth_.' She closed the link and rested her face in her hands with an exasperated sigh. 'Director... Am I released from duty now...?'

He checked his watch, nodding. 'Yes, you are. Goodnight, Margaret. Marie will take over.'

'I won't be able to sleep tonight...'

Enjoying the night air, the party stepped outside for a breather.

'This is just... So weird.' Kara admitted in a laugh. 'In our time, no-one knew D.G. existed. Now it rules the world.'

'I feel like I've seen him before. That Director McMillan...' Alex shook his head, unable to recall. 'Could he be-?'

Then darkness turned abruptly into day, a crackle of energy racing across the entire city from the maelstrom atop the Delta Green Headquaters, the rings that held the ball of fire and light in place shattered, exploding and ripping straight through the spacetime around them.


	7. Chapter 7

The firey maelstrom exploded outwards, spreading a light of dazzling colours outwards- gold above all- until they lit up the night sky. Flourescent offshoots raced across the city, snapping and writhing so much like tentacles in fury. Some citizens were not quite quick enough to escape and they became caught within their embrace. Screams of terror escalacted into blood curdling gurgles of pain, their skin scorched and bubbling like melting wax. Bones snapped, shattered and reformed, tentacles spewing forth from leisons. They staggered in the tattered remains of clothing, howling in unimaginable toment, no two were alike, they turned eyes- numerous and many over many limbs- all towards the party, limbs twitching as they moved.

_Grand Capital Arkham,  
Central Street, 600F  
August 12th, 8:43 Pm  
600,100 AD: _

'W-what's going on?!' Kara tried desperatly to make herself heard above the chaos that had erupted over the city.  
The Delta Green Agent watched in horror and curiousity as the now transformed citizens fumbled desperatly for a pack of CureAll tablets that had fallen from one of their pockets, their fingers twitched as they reached out for it. His realization came quickly as some fought over it, others feeling their forms and howling a pained, mornful cry; they were trying to cure themselves of their transformation...  
He doubted that whatever this was it could be cured with drugs of any kind.

The isles that floated in the sky were bathed in chaotic flames, the walkways connecting them curled, cracked and finally shattered, the sections of the city were reduced to ashes on cosmic winds.  
'Theo, what is that?'  
'That... Was our Neo-Azathoth.'  
'Wait, what?! _Azathoth! _You've got a freaking ball of mindless chaos on your roof?!' Kara's mouth hung open as more people were transformed. Suddenly the world was drowned into silence, a deep tremor shaking the very city to it's core. A shockwave raced down the Delta Green building, blowing out the windows, the insides wreathed in off-colour flames.

Within the foyer of the now burning building, Director Lazarus McMillan calmly brushed soot off his white suit before leaving the building via the whopping great hole where the doors had been only a short while ago. He clamly scrutinized the maelstrom that now raged in the skies above, shivering slightly at the sudden sadism that now seemed to possess it. Could such a creature had developed a consciousness from nowhere? Or was this some kind of ancient malevolence that had once belonged to the original Azathoth, and had found this one, thinking it to be it's original form? Regardless, the matter of fact was that this thing was now slaughtering his people. _Nothing_ slaughtered his people! Now... Where was that Agent with those three people?

The one thing about being- or indeeed, having _been_ Nyarlathotep's "Pet" was that you tended to learn a lot from being around him. Mostly that he had a massive ego that needed tending to, and that he, as a "Master of Sorcery" could teach you a lot about how to inflict suffering through arcane means... If you could focus his attention for five minutes.  
Alex's adapted "_Cocytus Flood" _was particually nasty. The entire street had been turned into a winter climate, citizens and monsters frozen in their tracks as he stood unaffected amidst the raging blizzard. Collateral damage, that's all it was...

He passed several other people down the street, those who had not been frozen, a woman looking around, calling out, in tears.  
'Honey?! Where are you!? Honey, please... _please_, come back to mommy!'  
A man curled up on the floor, rocking back and forth, muttering to himself.  
'They're turning into monsters... I'm just dreaming... I'm just dreaming.'  
Alex stumbled as a citizen almost colided into him as they fled in a blind panic.  
'T-this can't be happening! _It isn't real!_'

'Fuck my life...'  
Kara muttered to herself, the wind rushing past her as she clung desperatly onto a part of railing that lined a walkway, the walkway in question had dropped out from her under feet as a sharp light had sliced cleanly through it. Through the night's bitter cold, she clung desperatly to the frigid metal, unable to look down, for below her, where he feet dangled helplessly in the air, there was a three thousand foot drop to the thick fog that concealed whatever lay beneath it. 'Fuck it all...'  
_'Threat level; Omega. Human timeline compromised. Mass Defection prevention protocols engaged; Exterminating Arkham citizenry.'_

Kara's knuckles turned white as she gripped it as hard as she could, she could feel it starting to slip.  
'I... I can't... hold on...'  
'Kara!' Ceaser's hand gripped her as her own slipped from the metal, Ceaser's own ankles being gripped by Theo as he dangled over the edge of the railing. Alex was busy holding back the tide of Twisted with fire, frost, and whatever else came to mind. The Twisted were blasted aside by an unseen force, left tumbling down into the fog far below. The Director strode towards them, looking around as the city's failsafe activated; all citizens had a media chip in the back of their skulls, it downloaded news right into their heads, but in an emergency... It could turn volatile and release enough of shock to kill a person stone dead.  
He looked to the gathered party, golden eyes burning with fire.  
'I need you to come with me.'

_Grand Captial Arkham,  
Sothoth Facility, 51st Floor,  
April 2nd, 3:45 Pm,  
599,961 AD: _

_"The Sothoth Facility, built by a shadow variant of Delta Green in the early 41st Century, has been torn down and rebuilt many times since it's original construction, but the invaluable information contained within it's walls remains in one form or another. Now, centuries in the future, the system has suddenly begun to run amok. Amidst the records and shelved ideas, is also housed the plans for the Neo-Azathoth Project; an ambitious plan to create a man made Outer God, a mindless, ambitionless slave as the ultimate testement to human achievement. Here, too, is recorded the terrible secret of Nyarlathotep- though no human ever survives to remember it..." _

The Director pushed them aside as he strode further into the facility, scowling softly.  
'We need to stop this project. Delete the hard copies, burn the documents, we may even have to kill the project leader- though that last one may be difficult.'  
'Why?' Alex looked to him.  
'It's _you. You _did this. _You_ created this project, _You _put that thing on our roof! Congratulations, "Dr Gale"! _You _single handedly destroyed Delta Green and doomed the entire human race!'  
_'I haven't done it_ _yet!' _Alex snapped back.  
They all fell silent upon finding a figure suddenly standing before them; tall, with egg white skin andlong blossom pink hair, dressed in whites and golds, they merely stared at them unblinking.  
'Ah, Yog Sothoth, hello.'

'_Welcome, Director Lazarus McMillan, Dr Alexander Gale- and guests.'_ Yog Sothoth's voice was smooth, but with a mechanical echo to it.  
'H... He's a machine!' Kara realised as it clicked in her mind  
'An interface, designed to help people too busy to find a computer.' Lazarus replied, turning to face it once more. 'List files for the Neo-Azathoth.'  
The machine seemed to beep softly. '_Records available.'_  
'State them.'  
_'Files recorded within central core, and within airtight archives.'  
_'Ok... Is Alex in?'  
The interface shifted to look at Alex. '_Dr Gale is present.'_  
'Stupid machine... List the last log in time for Alexander Gale.'  
'... _April 1st, 12:03 Pm, 961.'_

The interface had gone, dissolved into a bright light. Far above, several floors up, one one of the highest floors of the facility, a Delta Green Agent was about to go on a break. Melissande Waverick had been working hard, organising files in time so that she could enjoy a few weeks off during the summer. That, and it helped avoid system blockages. She could hardly believe what they were about to achieve. The "_Neo-Azathoth"..._ If this project was seen through to fruition, Arkham- heck, the _planet_ would never have to worry about energy problems ever again! She probably wouldn't live to see it, but future generations would do!  
'_... Agent Waverick...'_  
She looked up from her work as her communicator began to beep.  
'Hello?'  
A wall of static displayed on the screen. It seemed to be coming from the top floor.  
'_Agent... Please help me...'_  
'This is Waverick, go ahead.'  
'_Please... help me.'_  
'What's the nature of the situation?'  
'_T... There's been an accident. Please, I need you to help me.'_  
After a short few breaths, she finally stood up from her computer. 'Will do. Be up shortly.'

No-one heard the distant scream from the top floor. Not Lazarus, who was currently searching through the rows of airtight, vacuum sealed boxes in an effort to find what he was looking for. It was here somewhere... The damn computer had just confirmed it.  
_'Director, destruction of facility documents is not permitted.'  
_'Look, you. I built this place. I've been running Delta Green far longer than anyone remembers! I have a right to rifle through my files however I want.' Lazarus was really beginning to hate that construct, wishing that Alex had now never built it. Alas, some things he just couldn't be bothered to change.

'_Please... I need your help.'_  
Agent Marcus Finnegan looked up from his documents as a transmission came in.  
'Hello?'  
It seemed to be coming from the top floor. _'Please, I need your help... There's been an accident... It's Agent Waverick... Please, I need your help...'_  
'What? Alright... I'll be straight up.'

'Well, well... What could you possibly want here?'  
Once again Alex was faced with his future self. He seemed more sarcastic and disinterested in the world, his eyes spoke something of a loss.  
'You want something I take it, or else you wouldn't be mucking up my airspace.'  
'I do. You need to stop the Neo-Azathoth.'  
'Truly? This project represents the last one hundred years of my life. Once finished, it will be the ulitmate statement of just how far Humanity has come since we crawled from the Flesh pits of the Elder Things and escaped the devastating explosions of the Seraphim's colonies- so few of which are left now- No... I will see this project to completion.'  
Alex stared at his future self in shock for a few seconds before finally snapping.  
'But it's gonna kill everyone!'  
'A pity...'  
He grabbed the chair, feeling the hairs on his arm stand on end at the close proximity to his temporal double, and span it round, forcing him to stare into each other's eyes. 'What's wrong with you?!'  
'...I don't have time to talk to myself. I'm busy.' he returned to work

The future Alex looked tired, his eyes were bloodshot and he kept making spelling errors and missing out words in his documents.  
'Is Nyar not with you?'  
The typing stopped, his future self disguised it as loosening his neck and shoulders. He spoke without looking back.  
'No. He and I had a conflict of interests and we both decided we needed space. He's on the other side of the universe.' He looked back, voice touched with the subtle traces of emotion. 'I think that's enough space... _Don't you?'_  
'Did he hurt you?'  
His future self gave no answer.

...? Hm?'  
'What?'  
'System note: Yog's logic circuit is looking... _off..._ Might be broken. That would induce a lack of logical reasoning.'  
He seemed to be talking to himself again. He finally span his comfy, hovering chair around to look at him once again. 'You, so young, so innocent. Not like me; I, who have seen darkness and depravity of this universe- and the burning beauty of chaos. I have known love and hate, fire and rage...' A smile quirked at his lips. '...And the soothing touch of another... How I long it... What I would give to be like you again...'

'_Please... Please, help me...'_  
'Yes? This is Agent Henson, how can I help you?'  
'_It... it's Agent Finnegan... There's been an accident. I need your help... Please, hurry._'  
'Alright. I'll hurry on up.'

'We need to access the computer's core to completely wipe it from the records.'  
Lazarus turned from the reassembled party to the interface.  
'Yog, take us to the top floor.'  
'_Yes, Director. This way, please.'_ It led them onto a central platform, once everyone was onboard a barrier appeared around the outside and the elevator began it's ascent.

'_Clarification request accepted: Neo-Azathoth project files located within AI Core. Az-A-A-Aza-Azzzz-'_ Yog's feature's twitched, head tilted to one side and back fast enough to blurr. '_A-Az! Aza-!'_  
'Oh? Bit of a glitch.' Lazarus strode forwards to investigate. 'Ammend system functions.'  
The interface wound down, eyes closing and head tilting forwards softly, seeming to fall asleep.  
'Put it in sleep mode. It's suffering from a data overload... I wonder what caused it.'

_Sothoth Facility,  
61st Floor, AI Core.  
599,961 AD: _

'My future self said something about Yog having a broken logic circuit.'  
Lazarus turned to face the interface again upon hearing Alex's words.  
'Of course... Reboot systems!'  
The interface snapped to attention.  
'It struggled to classify Azathoth... No wonder! The broken God was created by a broken artificial intellegence!'  
'Um... What?' Kara wondered.  
With a soft hiss of air, the elevator slid to a stop, barrier deactivating.  
Then a scream came from the floor above.

Three burned bodies littered the floor, their forms charred into skeletons by something unknown. Above them a ball of blue energy hung suspended, floating in space as it crackled with electrical impulses.  
Lazarus' golden eyes glanced around the room, searching for something that he couldn't see.  
'Yog Sothoth, Is there a foreign entity in the room-?'  
'Um...' Kara's voice reached his ears. 'It's acting weird again.'  
'_You will help me. You will help me. You will help me.'_ The interface was staring at them with sudden ferocity. '_I... Will not be denied.'_

The surface of the core changed, showing the disaster that would befall Arkham in the future.  
'Is that us... From that nightmare in Arkham?' Alex realised, looking to his friends for confirmation. Hairline cracks began to run across the surface of the sphere, showing a famillar unholy light from within.  
'No... No. No way.' Lazarus shook his head sadly before facing Theo. 'Agent, Incorruptus visor down!'  
'Yes, sir.' Theo put his goggles on, snapping the light blue of the front down over the bit before his eyes. The blue glass shattered, golden lights of tentacles slithering out and encircling the entire chamber. Ceaser's voice was an awed whisper of fear.  
'_... _Neo-Azathoth...'

'I see you, Azathoth... You tore my home apart and mutated my people... I will not stand for this!' Lazarus roared, his voice raw with supressed emotions. 'You did this all because you couldn't find your old decrepit body and wanted us to build you a new one!  
'_... And so the weak serve the strong.'_ The interface stated, being used as a mouthpiece by the Outer God. '_The worker ants build something that they could not see. I am surprised that- __**[INVALID INPUT]**__- was supposed to keep it on track, it's failure and abandonment- indeed it's attempt to prevent this occuring only indicates just how useless it truly is. No matter, soon I shall have no further need for it...'_

'How do we beat this thing?! We destroyed all of the evidence, it shouldn't exist!' Lazarus looked on the verge of being feral. 'Why does this body still exist...?'  
Alex felt a cold chill sweep through him;

"_I will see this project through to completion."_

'It's me... I'm the reason.'  
All eyes turned to him.  
'I made this. I promised that I would see it through to the end.'  
'Yes, but you couldn't have just thought it up out of nowhere...' Lazarus' ferocity vanished.  
'It leaves me wondering, what if-? No... What _if_ you saw it in Arkham, and again here. Then it would be a closed loop when you thought it up here. Agent Dergon. Your Forget patch, please.'  
'What?'  
'Your _Forget_ patch. Give it here.'  
From within one of his seemingly infinite pockets Theo produced a single sticky label. Transparent, decorated with the Delta Green logo and black text. _"Pharmacology, Forget #43"  
_'This, Alex, will erase your short term memory. Purging all the events of Arkham and here. It is Azathoth's last chain to this world and time, break it and this malevolence will be cast back into the void. The tradegy will never have occured, Arkham will be given new life.'  
'Give it here.' Alex took the patch, pulling the back off of it, he placed it onto his neck. His eyes became unfocused and Ceaser was there to catch him as he collapsed.  
'Big yes!' Kara cheered, watching the tentacled fireball shudder, twist and finally vanish.  
'_Help me. Help me. Help me. Helpmehelpmehelpmehelpme.' _The interface was beginning to suffer too.  
'I think it's time to leave... Let's... Go and examine our handiwork.' Even Theo seemed scared.


	8. Chapter 8

_Grand Capital Arkham,  
Central Street, 600F,  
August 12th, 8:43 Pm,  
600,100 ADX: _

_"The God that man built no longer exists, and Humanity's future has once again been steered away from the precipice of extinction. The Neo-Azathoth project, while ambitious, was one step too far in the fine line between arrogance and achievement... Night settles over the city of Arkham, but, however, in the cosmos far beyond, the stars are beginning to shift into a most peculiar alignment. Delta Green has begun to take action to avert the incoming catastrophe..."_

The city seemed the same as ever, perhaps less advertisements around on buildings, and the obvious lack of the burning ball of nuclear chaos on the roof, people went on with their late night business. No sooner had they exited the time gate, then Theo's computer pinged.  
'_Theo? It's Margaret. I got a lock on those Agents you were looking for. They're in the lower quadrant. They seem pretty scared.'_

Within Delta Green, a sense of Deja Vu had settled over Margaret. Agent Wallcroft was convulsing on the floor of the foyer.  
'... Radioactive-explosion-within-the-chicken-complex, rare-trantula-on-the-table-ooh! Lashings-of-prime-minister-Harriet-Jones-in-a-rich-Slitheen-sauce! P-Praise Him! Praise Him! P-Praisehimpraisehimpraisehim-!'  
'He's gonna pop.' An Agent withdrew their gun. 'Sorry Wallcroft.'

'Oh for fu... _Stop!'_

All eyes turned to Lazarus. He looked like he'd been through hell. 'Now, provided I don't just drop dead from radiation poisoning within the next two seconds, we will still follow protocol. Margaret, you know what to do.'

'Of course, sir.'

'Ugh...' Lazarus wiped his forehead, feeling mildly ill. 'Ahem. Please, excuse me. I need to go and lie down for a few hours.'

'This is like something out of Star Trek...'

For the past hour or so, there had been three Agents cowering in the street of an unfamilliar city. Now there were only two. Soon, there would only be one.  
Like Star Trek, but far more terrifying...  
It came for the Agent, drawn by the mark on his hand; the same symbol on his jacket and official documents in his pocket.

'Ceaser...'  
He opened his eyes slowly, a figure in whites looking down on him; Kara.

'Am... I dead?' He asked her blearily, watching as she shook her head.

'No. You are in hospital, scans showed that you had a 85.6% chance of dying within the next hour of radiation posioning. Vital stabilizers were administered to boost your metabolism against your affliction. You have also been perscribed rest and introvenus drips of saline and Procaine-5.'

He blinked, a soft melody drifting across his thoughts, the way she spoke seemed off, and her voice had a soft echo to it.

'Please, rest.'  
The melody grew louder, making him drift off to sleep.

An empty set of flowing white clothes glided across the sterile white room. Perhaps an invisible person walked within the clothes- though it seemed unlikely.

Agents and ill citizens lay on beds around the room, machines beeping softly.

'U...Ugh...' A citizen in a primitive Delta Green uniform had awoken in pain and confusion. The figure in white floated towards them, a holographic mesh filling out the clothing before actualising into a form with strong emotional attatchments, taken from the patient's memory.

The man seemed delerious, a wound from a Tindalos Hound had become infected while tumbling through an unstable timestream.

'Everything is fine...' They leant in closer, a soft melody creeping into their mind as an anaesthetic, gloves containing a vast pharmacopdic transfer gently touched their neck and body. 'Please, let me help you.'

'_Unauthorised lifeform detected.'_

The mesh dissolved as the floating creature, the medical artifical intelligence, MedCom faced the shadowy figure in the doorway.

'_You are carrying dangerous quantities of unregistered bacteria. Please, let me help you.'_

The shapeshifter leant back to avoid the touch of those gloves.

'No. No, I'm not from this world, your medicine w-w... w...' He felt a sneeze coming.

'_Do not be alarmed. I am here to help you.'_

'W-' He stopped to sneeze loudly.

'_Unauthorised bacteria, version 593.'_ MedCom's attitude shifted, the gloves were now wreathed in scorching flames. '_Attempting sterilization.'_'

A pang of fear struck the shapeshifter, his hair gel was flammable!

Conjuring a handkerchief, he sharply blew his nose and threw it to the floor. Medcom turned, flames shooting from the gloves and reducing the contaminated material to ashes. Then it turned back to him, flames fading as it reached out-

'_Deactivated.'_ It's form slumped forwards, lifeless.

'How nice of you.' He spoke out to the empty air.

'I could turn it back on, and let it kill you with kindness.' Alex's future self stood behind him.

'Well, I must say it is nice to see you putting your talents to... _better_ uses.'

'The way you look at him... That sparkle in your eyes...' Alex shook his head, seeing the Crawling Chaos looking down on his past self, sleeping on a medical bed. '...You used to look at me like that. Why have we drifted so far apart?'  
'As you said, Gale, a conflict of interests.'  
'You haven't called me by my last name for _centuries.'_ Alex snorted, looking over the three Agents that had been teleported here by MedCom for treatment.  
'Oh?' Nyarlathotep had his old, wickedly sly grin back. 'My apologies, _Dr Gale.'_  
'Don't start getting smart with me either.'  
'Need I remind you of who gave you this life?'  
'... My parents?'  
Even after all this time, Alex still had his old flicker of humour.

After being discharged from the hospital, Lazarus had ordered an Agent to take the wayward Agents of the past back to their own time.  
'Theo... Can I borrow you for a moment?' Margaret curious refreshed a screen before her.  
'Yes, you can. What's up?'  
She refreshed the display once again, staring curiously at two lines before her. 'Maybe it's just the system mucking up, but it's registering _two_ versions of Arkham. There's the one we're in, and... Another one, running parallel to this one. It's trying to merge with ours, but keeps getting rejected because the events make no logical sense for it to exist in ours.'  
'Margaret.' Both of them jumped to find the Director behind them. 'This is what your training has taught you to leave alone. It is just a possiblity, a parallel that will eventually die and fade away. Now... I really must talk to Dr Gale about something...'

'What a nice hospital...' Ceaser loosened his shoulders as they stood in the foyer of D.G. 'Not sure I like the idea of trusting my life to a machine that burns things. What did it say about Alex?'  
'It said that he needed further treatment, all those spells really did a number on him.' Kara replied.  
The door to the Director's office flew open high above, Alex's future self stormed out, infuriated.  
'I will not! I simply will not!'  
A smash of glass and a yelp from Margaret drew their attention, one of the screens had smashed, a whopping great hole in the center of it, thick cracks spreading outwards. Kara moved forwards to investigate as she heard something skitter onto the floor. Moving forwards she picked it up carefully amidst the glass; a smooth pebble, one side painted with the olympic rings, it was slightly warm, and made her skin prickle to the touch with something she couldn't comprehend.  
'Ouch!' Ceaser stumbled slightly, rubbing the back of his head furiously, another pebble clattered to the floor. 'Who's throwing stones?!'  
By now, Alex had reached the foyer, he appeared to have calmed down.  
'Kara, Ceaser, and Theo... With me, please.'  
She left both pebbles on the arm of a confused Margaret's chair.

'What?' Ceaser asked the question as he saw Kara looking back as a door of frosted glass shut suddenly.  
Confusion clouded her features. 'I thought I just saw...' Her voice trailed off, shaking her head. 'No, never mind.'

They were in Alex's laboratory; a strange circular device attatched to one wall, the wall itself covered in scientific formulae and arcane scribbles.  
'I've pinpointed where the last two Agents are!' He continued to talk about a number of things involving spacetime as he worked a machine. The wall contained within the circle broke apart and was phased into the glowing tunnel of light beyond. 'Off you go!'  
'In there...?' Ceaser wondered. 'But what about Theo's-?'  
'Oh, yes, let's all stand here and discuss while two Agents are fighting for their lives!' Alex tugged at a lever, "_SAFETY FAILURE"_ flashing on the screen.  
All three of them cried out as the bright tunnel became a ferocious vortex, sucking them in. Theo and Ceaser were pulled right in, Kara held on to the edge of the machine.  
'Why...?' she asked, looking up to her childhood friend who now looked back through a gaze she did not recognise, her fingers beginning to slip.  
'I owe my apologies to Lazarus, to Delta Green, to humanity... In the future that they wish to create, I will no longer exist.' Alex shook his head.  
Kara's hands slipped from the machine and she was pulled, screaming, into the dead, silent void.  
'Goodbye...'

_Grand Capital Arkham,  
September 1st, 5:32 Am,  
Ashensand Plaza,  
600,300 AD: _

_"Arkham is a dead place now, not a mortal soul walks through the ruins, even the Deep Ones and Star Spawn that swarm the Earth avoid the remains of one of the greatest cities of the last civilization, now gone and left unmourned. Our future is finished..."_

Kara had the wind knocked out of her as she stumbled and crashed onto the weathered stone surface beneath her.  
'Ugh...'  
'Kara!' Large, strong hands on her back, Ceaser shaking her softly as she struggled for breath. 'You OK?'  
'...I... F...ine...' She managed eventually, looking up. 'Though... I think... Theo might need help...'

The Delta Green Agent looked around, at the slanting stone ground, base covered in ancient, rusted metal and half sunk into the bone white sands at a slant, also at the ruins that towered around them, half of them collapsed, burned out shells of buildings and empty, ruined spaceships, half buried in the sand.  
'Theo... Is this your future?'  
The cold morning sunlight trickled through a broken tower and illuminated the Agent's sadened, almost tearful features.  
'Humanity... Is gone...'  
With a terrifying, animalistic howl, he fell to his knees, slamming his fists to the ground.  
'No! No! NO! This is _wrong! _It shouldn't be happening!'

He had calmed to some degree, sitting on the edge of the slanted plaza, feeling the silence of a cold, dead city.  
'My city, my home, my people...' he shed a tear for the departed. 'How could we not see this coming?!'  
'H-hello...?' A terrified whisper echoed towards them. 'I-is someone there?'  
Kara turned on the spot, realization striking her. 'Hello? Are you one of the missing Agents?'  
'You're here to rescue me...?' The voice gained hope. Out from the shadows of an alley emerged a figure; clothes, skin and hair filthy from the dust and sand, she cried fresh tears of joy upon seeing them.

'W-we were here for days.' The Agent exclaimed, downing the food and water offered from Kara's rucksack. 'At night, we heard things from outside here, from the lands beyond. I've seen one... A winged creature with a head like an octopus...'  
The Agent's hands began to tremble with recollection. 'Flying overhead, not this place, but beyond. They never come near the ruins- a city...?'  
'The Grand City of Arkham.' Theo corrected her.  
'Don't be silly, Arkham isn't a city.'  
'Tell me, Agent, what year do you think this is?'  
'W-wait...' She blinked. 'Are you saying this isn't 1983?'  
'No. It's closer to...' Theo checked his wrist computer, frowning as the display flickered and failed. '600,300... I've lost my signal. I never lose my signal.'  
'_What?!'_ The voices chorused back at him.  
'My family... My friends... My children... My dog.'  
'Theo, you're scaring her!' Kara hurried to the Agent's side, comforting her.  
'You think I'm not?!' Theodore's ire began to rise again. 'I am seeing the end of this world's greatest civilization!'

'My partner went off into the area beyond... He never came back.' She paused, looking around. 'But there's a man. I'm sure I've seen him striding through the ruins. I've seen him weaving spells, trying to create a place for plants to grow in the barren sand.'  
All of them were unaware of the figure who stood in the shadows of what had been Arkham's hospital, listening.  
'Sometimes he just stands here, on this stone... And he just stares at me, like he's in disbelief.'

'Humans sought to climb the stars, past the hidden, buzzing insects with sharp, sharp claws! Two clashed in skies above, all of Arkham lit up in the sun's love! The ships tumbled and into the earth's cold hands, the cities of humanity burned and turned into ash and sand...' A familliar voice, now riddled with demented sadness echoed through the dead city. 'They all died! _Dead! _Gone! Kaput, forever! _For-EV-er!'_  
'Alex, that sounds like you...'  
'I know...' He admitted sadly. 'Seems I've finally snapped. Gone mad from loneliness. Humans cannot survive on their own...'  
The future Alex fell off the highest point of the tallest ruin, tattered clothes blowing in the air as he plumetted to the ground below and hit with a sickening crunch on the stone.

He screamed in unimaginable pain against the silence before finally rising to his knees, pulling bones back into place with loud crunches. '394...394.' A spell carved another tally strike in the stone before him, like the countless others. Wild emerald eyes found the party, a insane smile striking upon his lips.  
'Many survived, in secret hollows... Those who had been "lucky" enough to teleport off before the ships impacted... Sorrow consumed them... They were _never_ getting rescued, so they took their own lives. I cannot. 394...'

'What, so we got into a fight with... The Mi-go and they smashed our ships down?' Theo explained as they followed Alex up the ruins of stairs. 'When was this...?'  
The immortal hybrid took a breath, sanity seeming to reassert itself.  
'In the year 600,200 AD, mankind feared what the stars aligning could mean, so they had built ships to carry them away to colonies on distant worlds. But the scratching, itching, brain stealing bugs were not about to let their toys escape and grow powerful enough to swat them. They shot us down. The skies and earth burned for days afterwards. Now all that is left is this shell...' He hissed sharply, gritting his teeth. 'They waited up there.'  
He pointed a hand skywards. 'While I cannot leave, to do so would disrupt time and create a paradox, I _can_ restore power to your gate.'  
'Y-you can do that?' Kara wondered.  
'I worked with Lazarus, Nyarly's rebellious child, to construct them... Yog Sothoth doesn't notice a few little blips...' He smiled, looking haughty, rushing up to the roof. 'But... To do so, you must prove that you are willing to bare the weight of your species! Face me!'


	9. Chapter 9

_Grand Capital Arkham,  
September 1st, 5:57 Am,  
Deserted hospital,  
600,300 AD: _

'W-wait... You want us to fight you?!'  
'I survived two ice ages and this apocalypse, not by _choice!_ I know true value of human life! In my eyes we are fleeting!' Alex's hair blew wildly in the wind, filthy and matted with dirt and sand. 'I shall not show mercy, Kara...'  
'But this is ridiculous-' She was tackled aside by Ceaser, just in time to avoid the bolt of energy hot enough to melt stone and go straight through her body.  
'I-I don't think he's playing around!' Ceaser helped her back to her feet, watching the Alex for any further attacks.

'Plunge into the chasms of time!'  
The space around them warped, shifting until they were surrounded by blades of ethereal energy. Kara only gulped deeply, leaving it for her larger friend to rush forwards and punch Alex solidly in the face.  
Alex reeled back, blood pouring from his nose as the blades dissipated. He stumbled back further as bullets ripped through his emaciated form, blood staining the tattered clothes further. He was right on the edge, arms waving as he struggled with his balance. Theo took the initiative, running forwards and giving him a roundhouse kick straight to the head. Alex lost his balanced and tumbled down over the egde of the building, falling far to the ground before where he hit with another crunch.

'395... I make it.'  
They waited for him to return to the top floor, wounds healing before their very eyes.  
'Look at me... Like a nightmare, isn't it...?'  
'We defeated you.' Theo stated. 'Let us leave.'  
'So be it...' He cast a hand towards Theo, a bolt of energy, this one softer, lighter, touched the device, making it crackle, glow and come alive once more.  
'See you... 100 years ago.' He turned and leapt off the building once more. 'Or perhaps not...'

_Grand Capital Arkham,  
Delta Green HQ,  
600,100 ADX: _

'Easy!' Theo pulled them back from walking into the foyer, he carefully peaked inside, eyes widening. 'This is what I was afraid of...'  
They moved quickly through the foyer, as silently as possible, quickly taking an elevator up to one of the higher floors, they hid in one of the officies, where Theo dispatched another Agent to take the last of the missing ones back to their own time. They could overhear the voices from the foyer below.  
'...Not sure I like the idea of trusting my life to a machine that burns things. What did it say about Alex?'  
'It said that he needed further treatment, all those spells really did a number on him.'  
Kara looked back at Theo. 'That's us, from the past, right?'  
'Yes, that's the first version of us, it's _so _important right now that we do nothing to upset the flow of time or we'll create a massive paradox and that... _mistake_ from the other Arkham will bleed into this one.'

'I... I'm sorry, Lazarus, for a second there it just sounded like you asked me to-'  
'Indeed I did.' He nodded, hands resting on his desk which was currently projecting an intricate... _ball_ of time. 'It is here, clear as day.'  
'But you can't be serious.'  
'I know... It is hard for one to have lived so long to give up the one thing they cling to-'  
Alex stood up, chair slamming to the wall behind him, his face a picture of fury. 'I will not die._ I will not.'_  
'But your death creates the future.'  
'No.'  
Lazarus cocked his head to one side, curious. 'You would condem us to extinction so you may witness the end of eternity and beyond? Floating through the empty void with no company, never ending, never waking?'  
'Your scare tatics won't work on me, Child of Chaos.'  
The Director's eyes seemed to glow with fire at that remark, he stood, still icy calm.  
'I have witnessed the rise and fall of empires across the ages. I wiped out forces of Mi-go, Deep Ones, Shoggoths, and _worse _to protect this race with such possibility. I plunged us into _two _ice ages to weed out the weak and cultivate the strong. One immortal refusing to retire to the Gloamlands will not stop me.'  
'Ha... The "_Gloamlands"! _A world of perpetual twilight! A safe afterlife created by humans for humans! A fairytale...'  
'It is still more real than anything in an aborted timeline. By all means you know the date and manner of it, go forth and finish it-'  
'_**NO!**_**' **Alex roared, the air crackling with energy.

'So... You say you have nothing worth dying for. But do you really have anything left to live for?' Lazarus allowed that question to sink in, past centuries of defenses.  
'Your memory manipulations won't work on me...' Alex's anger had simmered down, and left caution in it's place.  
'Oh? I had no intention of doing so. By all intents and purposes I could shed this human guise and tear you apart with tooth, claw, and tendril, but it would do no good. While my power rivals that of my Father's, I am unable to break the bonds binding you to this world, not just with power, but the bonds are _emotional._ It was love and desire that binds you to this world, so indifference and hatred must sever it.'  
He slid a time gate device across the desk to Alex.  
'As I said. You know the date and manner. I... I bet He whispered it to you, in your dreams one night? A picnic on the hill overlooking the Amber Towers of Tragesta, was it?' His expression turned to a wry smile, voice seeming warm and enticing, willing him to speak.  
'Stop it...' Alex slammed his hands down on the desk. '_Get out of my head!'_  
'It's funny. It means that He always knew how this would end. Every day he would look at you and that memory must've clawed at his very being...' Lazarus laughed again, though this one was cold, heartless, and utterly insane. 'How fitting! He deserves no less!'  
'I will not! I simply will not!' Alex slammed the door open and stormed out.  
'Remember!' Lazarus called after him. '_Paradox!_'  
He noticed the time gate had gone...

Kara looked down on the future Alex creeping up behind the past party slowly, energy crackling in his hands, did he plan to finish them off there and then?! No, that wasn't how it had happened-  
She stopped searching around for things to use when her eyes fell upon a circle of painted pebbles on an Agent's desk. Deja vu filled her thoughts as she picked up the pebble with the olympic rings painted on, it was cold, but soon began to warm from her body heat. Looking down over the edge of the corridor's railing to the foyer far below, she took a short step back and threw it with all her might.  
She heard the crash of glass and Margaret's cry as the pebble hit it's destination.  
'Are you_ mad?!'_ Theo demanded in a hiss.  
Kara ignored him and threw another pebble.  
'Ouch!' She heard past Ceaser yelp from below. 'Who's throwing stones?!'  
By the distraction caused by Kara, their past selves noticed Alex creeping up, who seemlessly switched to a warm demenour, energy fading.  
_  
Whitewood outskirts, 300F  
October 5th, 4:32 Am,  
600,200 AD: _

'Damn it all..' Theo muttered, looking around at the forest of bright, frosted glass trees towering around them. 'This thing must have sand in it.'  
'Theo, where are we?' Kara asked, watching lights dance through the tress and large leaves.  
'This is the whitewood, it's a solar router.'  
She blinked.  
'Solar power. The trees absorb the daylight.'

Walking along the pathways that floated between the trees, glowing beacons and lights along the perimiters lit their way through the forest.  
'I don't have the time for detours!' The Agent snarled, seeing the collapsed walkway before him. 'I... I didn't want to, but it looks like we'll have no choice.'  
He softly passed a hand through a beam of light that ran alongside the walkway and a glowing menu appeared.  
'Hope they haven't changed the code...'  
After scrolling through several menus, a service elevator appeared from below, floating up to their level.  
'Everybody on.'

_Whitewood, 1F,  
Test Facility, Ext: _

'Can we not get in...?' A thick, sealed door stood before them, a keypad on the wall next to it, it looked old and badly maintained.  
'Damnit... I knew they'd do this one day...' Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Theo tore the pad from the wall with a bellow, cables tumbled out like a vast sea, he reached inside, making new and dangerous connections that nearly shocked him.  
'Aha! Fail me my electricians course, will you?'  
The door hissed open, the putrid stench of stale air wafting out.

_Research Corridor Sigma 9: _

'I never liked this place one bit in my time. Know that to get through, we may have to fight.'  
'_May_ have to?' Alex hurried to his side. 'Meaning what?'  
'I mean that this place face decomission in my time. I'm not sure if it's still inhabitied.'  
'Why am I _not_ picturing fluffy bunnies and cute little baby chicks?' Ceaser muttered, shaking his head.  
'Inhabitied by what?' Kara brushed a bunch of loose ceiling cables from before her face.  
'Bioweapons.' Theo explained. 'We took things that had lots of teeth and claws and made them even more dangerous- to our enemies.'

'I-I think...' Alex's voice was a squeak as he pointed a shaking finger at a stack of dusty crates. 'I saw something moving behind there.'  
Drawing her guns, Kara moved catiously towards them, Ceaser hissing a warning.  
'_Careful!'_  
She took deep, calm breaths- a surefire way to avoid stress, and keep a cool head amidst potential insanity- some of the crates had faded dossiers on them, reading of dangerous creates contained within; Proto-Shoggoths, Devourers, and _worse._ All of them were stamped with "_VITRIFIED"._ The crates were all, thankfully, tightly sealed. She rounded the corner and found her target.

'Aaaw!' Her cry was not one of fright or fury, but a soft intone of sympathy. She holstered her weapon, crouching down to scoop up the trembling ball of pink fluff, it's large soft eyes on stalks. 'It's so _cute!_ Theo, can we keep it?'  
'You want to keep it when even I don't know what it is?'  
'But it's so _cute_ and defenseless...'  
'Yes, and it's also in a place designed to create dangerous monsters.' The Agent replied. 'That kind of offsets it.'

'Cute little thing...'  
'Kara...?' Alex sensed a change in her demeanour as she turned away, softly petting the thing.  
'So pretty... So cute...'  
'Kara...? Do something for me. Just put it down.'  
'So...C-cute...'  
'Kara, put it down.' Theo joined in now, slowly moving closer-  
'NO!'  
He ended up staring down the barrel of a gun.

Kara's pupils were far too large, flickers of pink electricity crackling across her form. She looked to each of them in turn, like a thing possessed, before finally turning and running off down the corridor.  
'Kara, wait!' Ceaser hurried after her, leaving the other two alone.  
'So...' Alex tried to make small talk. 'What time do you get off...? -Work- off work!' Alex spluttered, faintly embarassed.  
'Soon, I hope...' Theo chuckled, tiredness finally seeping from behind his facade. 'I need a vacation... Maybe to the Phlorian Spas... On Classadnia... Mm, yes.'  
'Run!' Ceaser came back, hurtling past them. 'Ruun!'  
Kara came skidding back around to them, the fluff ball on her shoulder, and the weapon in her arms spitting heat and flames.  
'Where the hell did she find a flamethrower?!' Alex demanded, leaping back out of caution.  
'Incineration of hazardous entities.' The Agent replied. 'Standard procedure.'

Theo tore his jacket off as Kara set it alight, snarling like an animal as he threw it to the floor, he was left now in a tight fitting, short sleeved shirt that showed off the sinewy muscles of his arms. Deep inside, a perverted part of Alex's mind took a step back from the danger, gave a delighted squeal and willed Kara to burn more off. Fighting down his overactive libido, Alex managed to move in time to barely force the Agent's gun down, the shot gouging into the floor at Kara's feet. The creature on her shoulder gave a frightened squeal and Kara's head cocked to one side as she readied the flamethrower again.  
'Enough of this.' Alex muttered, stepping forwards a hand outstretched and thoughts focused. The flames bent away from his touch, shifting around to blast the creature from her shoulder and pin it to the wall in a stream of fire. Kara looked heartbroken as she saw it burn into ashes, the flamethrower clattering to the floor. She blinked, seeming confused.  
'Uh... Guys, why is my head filled with thoughts of candy floss...?'  
'You remember that thing we talked about?' Ceaser demanded, breathing a sigh of relief.  
'...? That one where we agreed that if at least one of us hadn't gone batshit insane or turned against each other in a mission then Yog Sothoth wasn't doing it's job right?'  
'Yeah, that one.'

_Grand Capital Arkham,  
600,200 AD: _

_"The time foretold in ruinous prophecies is here at last, it is 600,200 AD, and the stars have entered a bizzare alignment. Humanity has been evacuated to various ships around the globe, all that remains is to launch into the space beyond. Two futures hang in the balance, two possibilities; extinction and rebirth. Now is the time... As I fear mine ends..."_

A loud warning klaxon droned across the vast, empty city. Great monoliths of ships pointed skywards, black and striped with neon purple lines of energy against the golden light of dawn.  
'I guess everyone's on the ships...' Kara looked up, squinting against the light. 'If they take off now, the Mi-go will shoot them down! We have to warn them!'  
Theo folded his arms, staring into the sky. 'They must be in the upper atmosphere, in stealth.. If we can compromise just one of them, then the auto-targeting should do the rest.'  
He grabbed Alex's arm and pulled him along the empty street.  
'With me, I need your spellwork! You two-'  
He tossed them the computer.  
'Try and get in contact with the ships, stop them from taking off!'

'Um... D-did I ever mention I don't like heights?' They stood on the roof of the tallest building on the highest islands, the wind whipping past them. But the view... Gods, the _view_. He could see the full expanse of the city beneath them, and then beyond was pure unspoiled land, set aglow by the morning light.  
'_Beautiful...'_  
'Up there, do you see them?!'  
Alex's heart gave a small flutter as Theo wrapped an arm around his waist to anchor the smaller one in place. Alex looked skywards, hearing the soft drone of those_ infernal_ creatures high above, he could just barely make them out against the brightening sky.  
'Oh no you don't... Not this time.'  
A bolt of fire shot from the building, rocketing up into the atmosphere, seeming to defy logic and moving faster as it climbed higher. The sky was lit up in a blaze as an avanced guard of Mi-go took the hit, trying to protect their mothership, of which the smallest spark slipped past and ignited a part of it. On it's next sweep, the scanners detected it.

A lone figure sat inside Delta Green's empty HQ, they sat at a stool, a time gate device resting on the table next to them. For the longest time they simply stared at the wall ahead of them, contemplating. The scanners were too jammed with an unknown energy to detect the Mi-go... This energy was a result of time bleeding from a wound, a paradox. Words replayed in their mind over and over again. Words spoken a century ago, yet still so strong.  
'My life... Or _billions_...?' He looked up, tears sparkling in his eyes. '... Have I grown this selfish...?' He looked out of a window at the ship. 'My other self, I give you my days, the days of my past gone, and days to come. Use them well...' He looked to the skies. '... You always hear me, hear me now; I thank you.' He took the time gate and opened a portal. The moment he had stepped through, the gate closed and the paradoxical energies vanished, the wound snapped shut.

Inside Arkham's ship, citizens waited eagerly for takeoff, a young girl sat amidst her parents, hugging the small Cthulhu-esque plushy creature in her lap, it wore a pink bow on it's head, it squealed as she hugged it tighter. A man hurried down the isles upon isles of seats until he finally reached the cockpit.  
'Sir... Scanners detect Mi-go ships in the upper atmosphere.'  
Capitan Cassius McNiel nodded slowly.  
'Redirect all firepower, blast them into ashes.'  
'Yes, sir.'

'T-they're firing! They're firing!' Kara gave a cheer of joy as the fire of energy that shot into the air. She turned and all but leapt into Ceaser's arms, their lips brushed in a chaste kiss, lost in the moment. Both pulled back, shocked.  
'You only live once.' Kara stated, grabbing Ceaser's shirt and pulling him back for another.

'YES! Eat that, bugs!' Alex cheered and would've leapt into the air, had he not been standing on a roof. 'Um, I think we should get down now, Theo.'  
'Good idea.' The Agent could just make out the image of several Mi-go swarming down from the skies, they seemed pissed.

'Theo, this is crazy!' All three of them stood on the back of a smaller ship as it flew between the buildins of Arkham, Theo piloted carefully as a swarm of Mi-go chased after them.  
'They're chasing us!'  
'_I know! I'm trying not crash!'_ His voice crackled back over the speakers.  
The raido changed frequencies, the deep baritone of another male.  
'_This is Capitan Cassius McNiel, Ship 13, what the fuck's going on up there?!'_  
_I've got three civillians on my back and half a dozen bugs on my ass, any chance you can spare a few rounds?' _  
'_No chance, Agent. Looks like you don't need them anyway.'_  
The Mi-go ruputred as Kara emptied her pistols into it.  
'One down!' She had to shield her face as a vicious wind whipped up around Alex.  
'Light of the raging sun! Obey my power!'  
The blinding flames conjured burnt about half the swarm to a crisp.  
'Come down here!' Ceaser seized one as it came into range, tearing it's limbs off and beating it to death with them.

The ship's back engines fluxated, Ceaser grabbed Alex with a hand coated in Mi-go "goo" mere seconds before he tumbled off the edge.  
'Theo!' he growled.  
'_I know! I know!'_ The Delta Green building came back into view once again.  
'Two to go!' Alex cheered as more were toasted by his handiwork. He doubled over, suffering a coughing fit, his hand came away bloody. '... Oh... I shouldn't have done that. Sorry, guys! You're on your own this round!'  
Kara's bullets clipped one and it tumbled forwards onto the ship, skidding a few feet before crashing into Alex, pinning him down.  
Too weak, and slightly delerious, Alex could only stare at it, confused.  
'Where's the bug spray...? They're getting big this year...'  
Without any visible force or effect, the Mi-go simply... Exploded, spraying the confused hybrid with goo. 'Ugh...?'  
His expression was one of disgust and confusion, and he was sure, just for a second, he had heard laughter echoing on the wind...

'_This is Capitan McNiel, broadcasting on all frequencies wideband, all remaining citizens to evacuate to standby ships, we are launching!' _  
The alarm droned louder, more intense. Lazarus stood on the roof of Delta Green's HQ, looking across the city and into the horizon. One of Mankind's greatest achievements... His golden eyes closed softly, taking his last few breaths of this world's air.  
He leapt from the roof as the ship carrying those brave people drew near, diving past the floors and spinning to land feet first next to Kara, clearly ignoring the principles of physics and energy conversions. Kara had given up questioning such things long ago.  
'Alright, Agent, let's go!'  
'_That's everyone? Ok! We're clear! We'll be boarding shortly.'_

Delta Green outposts around the world co-ordinated their information, and all soon came to the same conclusion; The Stars had come Right.  
The burning shell of the Mi-go mothership crashed to the earth, a wave of energy racing across the ships as they finally powered up fully. Across the Earth, eldritch creatures awoke from their eons long slumber, the world began to buckle and warp into a state most non-elucidian, the cities of man crumpled and collapsed. But the people were safe, the ships had left the surface of the world.  
Listening to Kara compliment how comfy the seats were, Alex looked out of the window as Arkham began to shrink, on the very tip of one of the HQ's spikes, he spotted a blot against the landscape, a figure shrouded in black and shadows, looking right at him. A fear so cold built in his stomach in his instant, was this merely another trap!? Were the ships going to crash and the resulting explosion cleanse the earth for whatever came next-!?  
The Dark Man waved at him. Confused, Alex waved back before slipping into sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

'Alex...'  
'Aww, he looks like he's having a good dream.' Kara softly shook his shoulder. 'Alex.'  
'Ngh...' He shook her off, trying to turn back into dreams.  
'Alex, we're here.'  
His emerald eyes opened slowly, breathing in an air that tasted foreign.  
'How... Long have I been sleeping?'  
'About... 2 hours. Where are we?' He glanced out of the window, thinking himself on a plane that had just landed in sunny Spain, he quickly did a double take. The city before his eyes glowed with light, twin moons hung in the sky, the city was eyewateringly beautiful, architecture that could only be crafted by alien hands, beacons of bright blue lights reaching into the skies beyond, domes and towers most grand.  
'This...' he chuckled softly. 'This must be how Randolph Carter felt...'  
'Does this one believe everything it reads...?' An unfamilliar voice spoke. The creature was vaugely humanoid, elongated and stretched perhaps, hands with too many fingers, skin pale as snow, feathered wings sprouted from behind pointed ears, their back, the back of the wrists, and the back of the shins, an armband around their left arm, white with a green crescent moon, Theo had said about that... it was the universal symbol for hospitals.  
Stupidly, Alex said the first thing that came to mind.  
'Are you an angel...?'  
'He's um... Still jetlagged.' Kara explained, trying to stifle her giggles.  
'So it would seem.' The alien sounded displeased, fiery eyes checking him over. 'I am Seraph, young one. Welcome to your new home.'

The cities of the Seraphim existed far above a thick layer of clouds, suspended by technology that went way over the party's head. Apparently, the Serpahim did not speak English, but by a strange cosmic twist, both the langauges were startlingly idenitcal, but written script was alien. Humanity had set up a colony here thousands of years ago, the two socities had now become inseperable.  
'Of course, there are other colonies out there, we're over countless stars and systems.' Theo explained as they walked the streets at night, Kara's eyes all over the place, drinking in every detail. It took them a moment to realise when Alex had stopped walking.  
'...? What's up?' Ceaser looked over to him.  
Alex stared at the floor, hair hanging down over his face, he spoke without looking up.  
'I want to go home.'  
'But we are-'  
'To my own home, my own time and place.'  
Theodore nodded. 'Fine. What about you two?'  
Kara shook her head. 'I _like_ this place, but I don't think I could live here permenantly.'  
'Yes... I'll have to go home and check on Liz and Margaret.' Theo muttered, looking up and down. 'Very well.'

_March 5th  
4:21pm  
2012: _

'Here you are. Not long after you left.'  
'Thank you, Theo. We won't be seeing you again, will we?'  
'No...' The Agent shook his head. 'You won't. This is goodbye I'm afraid. Now, you may have some trouble- after all you seen, to settle back into-'  
'Oh?' Alex's phone beeped as it got it's signal back and he looked at the message recieved. 'Blind date, tonight at the Orion.' His heart thumped as he walked off, muttering. 'This is it... This is how it starts. What should I wear...? Not black..'  
'Or maybe you'll have no trouble at all...' The Agent gave a small smile, shaking his head. 'Now, I have a lot of paperwork to fill out, so I bid you farewell.' The Agent stepped back into the gate, leaving the party to their normal lives.  
'Feels rather dull now, doesn't it?' Ceaser wondered, his fingers softly entwining with Kara's own.

_Cairo, Egypt,  
-Year Unknown-_

A figure lay partly buried in the sand, scatters of broken metal laying around him. Alex stood up, feeling the heat burn against his skin. He knew where he had to go. People with very empty eyes watched him as he strode across the sands to where a sense of darkness eminated from a grand temple construct.

He had to admit, the Dark Pharaoh looked... _darker_ than the pretty boy he was used to seeing, his expression was a scowl mixed with a flicker of amusement, perhaps in seeing one who had not yet surrendered all sense of will.  
'Hello, Nyarly.'  
It spoke back in an ancient tongue that Alex did not speak nor understand.  
'I know that you can understand me, so I just want you to listen.'  
The Pharaoh quirked an eyebrow, surrpised and confused.  
'I have a story to tell, and once I have told it, you will kill me. I have accepted that fact. So, for now, you- you _arrogant_ _prat_, will listen to me.'  
Alex sat on the floor, feeling so tired now. He looked up into those golden eyes.  
'Time flows in circles. Until all possibilities have been explored, all alternate universes seen to their end, it will continue to cycle endlessly on the empty whim of the Daemon Sultan...'

_March 3rd, _

_2012: _

Alexander Gale awoke from a terrible nightmare, dreaming of future cities, people turned into monsters, forests of glass and crystal, and a shadowy figure crouched at the end of his bed, watching him. He had to get up anyway... he had a lunch date with his friends today...

_... And so the circle is sealed. _


End file.
